


you feel like home to me

by been_there_pun_that



Category: Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, Domestic, F/M, Family Dynamics, Fluff without Plot, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Multi, Nothing too explicit but Hershel gets really embarrassed, Parent-Child Relationship, Polyamory, Slow Burn, some plot but mostly fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-02-19 02:19:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 23,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13113900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/been_there_pun_that/pseuds/been_there_pun_that
Summary: "You feel like home to me,A place where love grows,A place I can call mine,A place where I can grow old."Home To Me by Tim DiVitoTwo years after the events of Unwound/Lost Future, Hershel couldn't be happier when the Tritons decide to move back to London, but he is in for a surprise when Brenda and Clark approach him with the idea of co-parenting Luke together.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was inspired by this lovely [moodboard](https://laytonaesthetics.tumblr.com/post/166860975003/a-moodboard-for-clark-hershel-and-brenda-raising) by laytonaesthetics on tumblr. Thanks (as usual) to MJ ([101flavoursofweird](https://101flavoursofweird.tumblr.com) on tumblr and [TheMockingJ3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMockingJ3/pseuds/TheMockingJ3) on AO3) for encouraging me to write this!

Hershel tried to not stare at his watch too much. He was waiting for the ship carrying the Triton family to arrive at the harbor. When Clark had called him a few months ago with the happy news that he would be moving the family back to London to teach at Gressenheller, Hershel had been overjoyed.

He had missed his friends dearly over the past two years they had been living in New York; in that time, they had only been able to visit each other once, the year before. He missed those late-night, rambling conversations over tea with Clark, those quiet afternoons in Gressenheller’s library helping Brenda do research for her Master of Science degree in geology. Luke’s absence had left the biggest void; in his three years as Hershel’s self-proclaimed apprentice, they had spent much of their time together, whether going on mysterious adventures or just puttering around the university. So the news of the Triton family’s return was very happy news, indeed.

 _I hope it’s not running late_ , Hershel thought, tearing his eyes away from his watch to scan the horizon again. And there it was, a huge, silvery-blue ship, its loading capacity appearing to be at least one hundred passengers, as well as plenty of cargo; it matched Clark’s description perfectly. As it approached the dock, he sighed a breath of relief and adjusted his top hat to shield his eyes in the early afternoon sun.

Once the ship came to a complete stop, the crowds began to disembark onto the dock. While several people were picked up in cabs and other vehicles waiting in the parking lot, others were met by forklift drivers who transferred large crates of their belongings onto moving trucks, to be delivered to their new homes. Scanning the crowd of the latter group, Hershel soon spotted the three familiar faces.

The crate of the Tritons’ belongings was transferred to a moving truck, which drove towards the front of the dock, where Hershel was parked in the Laytonmobile. Now that they were back in England, the Tritons would need to buy a new right-hand drive car; they had planned to meet at the harbor so that Hershel could give them a ride to their new home with the moving truck following behind.

Brenda, Clark, and Luke started crossing the loading dock, making their way through the crowds toward the Laytonmobile. Standing outside of his car, Hershel waved, a broad smile on his face. Luke broke into a run, going ahead of his parents.

“Professor!” he cried, his face split into a grin. He slowed down as he approached, but not by much, so that he slammed into Hershel’s chest when he came in for an embrace.

“Hello, my boy!” Hershel said through a soft “oof” at the impact. “It is so good to see you again!”

“You, too! It feels like it’s been forever!”

Luke pulled back from their hug; since they last time they saw each other, Luke has grown several inches. Now fifteen years old, he came up to Hershel’s chin.

Brenda and Clark soon caught up to their sprightly son.

“C’mon, c’mon!” Luke said excitedly, waving over to his parents as if that would speed them up.

Clark chuckled in his low voice, a very familiar sound to Hershel. “I doubt Hershel’s going to leave without us, Luke!”

“No, of course not!” Hershel laughed. As they approached, he hugged Clark and Brenda in turn.

“It feels like it’s been ages, Hershel!” Brenda said, her eyes shining with delight. She took a deep breath, “And that English air, hmm!”

Clark nodded. “It really is good to be back! We should get going, though, hon. The moving truck driver is waiting.”

“Indeed,” Hershel said, stepping aside so they could get to the Laytonmobile.

“The ol’ girl is still chugging along, professor?” Luke asked, giving Hershel an impish look.

Hershel chuckled. “You had better be more polite towards my automobile if you want to ride in the front seat!”

Luke looked excitedly to his parents. “May I?”

“Go ahead,” Brenda said, making a shooing motion.

“Yes!” Luke cheered, getting inside. Clark rounded to the other side of the car to open the back-seat door for Brenda before sliding in next to her.

As Hershel headed to the main road, the moving truck followed behind him. He already knew the way to the Tritons’ new house; it was in Bromley in southeast London. In their last months in America, Brenda and Clark worked with a real estate agent via telephone and written correspondence to pick out and buy it, in order to speed up the process.

“Aw, I’ve missed this seat…” Luke said, patting the old leather cushion affectionately.

“A lot of memories there, eh, son?” Clark said from the back seat. “You two have been all over the world in this car!”

“Yeah, we have!”

The four of them chatted easily as they drove along; the Tritons regaled the last-minute details and setbacks of packing up their house to move overseas and the two-day boat ride for Hershel. He noticed that the three of them had stronger New York accents now than they had had the last time they had seen each other, but he could still detect their old accents, even so. They would probably revert to their south London dialects in the weeks to come.

“It sounds like it has been quite the adventure!” Hershel commented when their stories from their big move drew to a close. “I am relieved you have arrived in one piece, after all that!”

Brenda hummed. “Well, we’ll have to check the crate to see if all of our furniture is alright, but so far, so good!”

“Right. Thanks again for the ride, Hershel!” Clark said. “It’s much nicer being welcomed back to the country by an old friend than a stranger driving a moving truck!”

Hershel glanced over his shoulder to see the backseat. “Oh, think nothing of it, Clark. I am glad I was able to make it, what with it being the weekend. Although, knowing Delmona, he probably would have been glad to let me cancel a lecture, so I could pick you up.”

Brenda chuckled. “He always did have a soft spot for Clark!”

“Oh, yes! He and Schrader were nearly beside themselves when they heard you were coming back to England, and that you are finally accepting the geo-archaeology teaching job at GU, no less! They’ve been offering it to you since graduation!”

“It only took me twelve years!” Clark said, laughing.

“And you’re returning to your job at the museum, right, Brenda?”

“I am, and I can’t wait!”

“Luke, you’ll still be doing home-schooling, I take it?” Hershel asked, looking to his left.

“Yeah! It worked really well for me last year, since I was able to go at a faster pace than at my old school.”

“It also lets him slow down when he wants to focus on something that really interests him,” Brenda added.

“Well, knowing how curious you are, Luke, that certainly does sound like a good arrangement for you.”

They arrived at the Tritons’ new house shortly; the moving truck parked behind them. Made of brick, the house had two storeys; the roof was high and slanted to one side and was covered with dark brown slate shingles. Two small chimneys sat at the side of the house and there was a roof terrace that would let in plenty of light. The house was surrounded by a gorgeous garden – apparently planted by the previous owner – with a large pond at the center.

“Lovely!” Hershel said as they pulled into the driveway.

“Thanks!” Clark said, looking at the house with pride. “And it’s only twenty minutes away from Gressenheller.”

Getting out of the Laytonmobile, Luke said, “Thanks again for the ride, professor!”

“Oh, I’m not leaving yet,” Hershel said with a smile, “I can at least help you unload the truck.”

“How sweet of you, Hershel!” Brenda put a hand to his shoulder.

They took a quick tour around the house to get familiar with it, as not even the Tritons had been there in person yet; they had only seen the pictures their real estate agent had sent them. With the assistance of the moving truck driver, Danny, the five of them started unloading the Tritons’ belongings into the house. Being in the prime of youth, Luke had the strongest back of everyone there, so he proved to be especially helpful in moving the bigger pieces of furniture. With all the help they had, they were finished within the hour. That hour passed by quickly for Hershel, he was so happy to be with the Tritons again, even doing something so tedious as carrying boxes. His friends had finally returned! 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Come say hello at detective-kat.tumblr.com


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all of your sweet comments on the first chapter; they were a big encouragement! :) I hope you continue to enjoy!

Once the moving truck was empty, the Tritons paid the driver and he was on his way. However, Brenda and Clark would not let Hershel leave before they ordered Thai take-outs for supper to thank him for all his help. The kitchen was not nearly complete yet and it was full of boxes, so they just sat on the stairs of the front porch to eat. It was a pleasant evening and they had a great view of the sunset. They left their normal dishes in the boxes for the time being, eating out of the take-out containers. Ever the big eater, especially now that he was a teenager, Luke ordered two entrées; no one doubted his ability to finish them both.

The four ate ravenously for a moment or two; they had built up their appetites from all that hard work.

“Hershel, we’ve barely talked about you at all,” Brenda said. “How have you been?”

He briefly lowered his chopsticks. “I’m well, thank you, and things are pretty much the usual around here. Last term at the university was very good. I don’t know if you heard, but Gressenheller just reached 2,000 students!”

Clark raised his eyebrows. “My goodness! Back when we were students, wasn’t the record enrollment around 750?”

“I believe it was,” Brenda said, tapping a finger to her chin. “That’s a huge milestone for our little specialty college! I know the campus was expanded in the last couple of years; good thing they added more buildings when they did!”

“So, you had said Mr. Delmona is still the dean?” Luke asked, slurping up a long noodle. Brenda gave him a stern, yet amused look. “I would have thought he would be retired by now.”

“He is,” Hershel said, nodding, “although he is thinking about retiring within the next year or two. I was briefly in the running to be his replacement, but I declined!”

Clark grinned knowingly. “Of course. You would never leave your lecture hall!”

“And Flora is doing great at King’s College,” Hershel continued, “she’s nearly done with her training at the Florence Nightingale Faculty.”

“She’s going to be a great nurse!” Luke said, smiling excitedly. “We talk on the phone sometimes and she told me that she and her roommates are getting along pretty well.”

“Yes, the girls are well suited for each other. My flat has been so quiet without Flora around. I am glad she has adapted to university life in the dormitory, though I do miss her dearly…” Hershel thought through the recent months. “Let’s see… things have been pretty uneventful, other than that. I already told you all in my last letter about that huge theft case I helped Chelmey out with a few weeks ago, that’s all wrapped up now. I visited Monte D’or last month as well, which was very nice. Hmm… well, my rent increased out of the blue last week…”

Clark and Brenda looked at each other in a way that Hershel couldn’t quite read.

“Oh… I’m sorry to hear that, Hershel,” Clark said, in a bit of an odd tone.

“Ah, it’s fine,” Hershel said with a shrug. “There’s nothing to be done about it; it’s to be expected when you have a flat in London, I suppose!” He glanced at his watch. “Well, I had better head out; I’m sure you’re all exhausted!”

“We are,” Clark said, “but not nearly as exhausted as we would have been without your help!”

“Yeah, thanks, professor!” Luke said.

As they cleaned up the disposable packages from their supper, Brenda and Clark again exchanged meaningful looks. If Hershel had not known them for as long as he had, he probably would not have noticed, but to him, it appeared that they had made some kind of wordless agreement. _What are they up to?_ he wondered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Come say hello at detective-kat.tumblr.com


	3. Chapter 3

Once everything from supper was cleaned up, Hershel headed out to the front porch, with the Tritons following behind. Hershel was expecting to say goodbye; he would hate to overstay his welcome and surely the Tritons were ready to get some rest after their long day.

“Brenda and I will see you to your car, Hershel,” Clark said. Hershel raised his eyebrows in surprise. Clark turned to Luke. “We’d like to speak with the professor in private, son.”

“Sure,” Luke nodded, “I’ll start unpacking my room. See you later, professor!” He gave Hershel a quick goodbye-hug.

“It’s good to have you home, my boy,” Hershel said, giving his shoulder an affectionate squeeze. Luke smiled brightly at him before going back inside the house, a cardboard box in tow.

“He really has missed you, Hershel,” Brenda said as the three of them walked down the front porch steps.

“I’ve missed him, too. These past two years, I have felt like I’ve lost my shadow without him around!”

Clark and Brenda smiled at each other; to Hershel, their shared look appeared to be meaningful somehow, though he couldn’t imagine why.

As they approached the Laytonmobile, Clark cleared his throat. “Hershel… there’s something Brenda and I would like to speak with you about.” He sounded oddly hesitant.

 “And what would that be?” he asked, leaning against the Laytonmobile. He looked between his two friends curiously.

Brenda’s expression grew serious. “You and Luke have always had a very special friendship.”

Hershel smiled warmly. “Yes.”

“You two are wonderful friends,” Clark said, “but you have also been a mentor and… and a father figure in Luke’s life. Even while the three of us were in the States, you two stayed in close contact, writing letters, talking on the phone. And especially while you were investigating the case in Misthallery, when your friendship began, you were much more of a father to Luke than I was at the time, out of my mind with stress from Descole’s manipulation with the ‘specter,’ as I was…”

Shame and sadness crossed Clark’s face at the memory; Brenda took his hand and stroked his arm comfortingly.

“That’s all in the past, dear,” she whispered, just loud enough for Hershel to hear.

The serious atmosphere that had descended was completely out of the blue. Hershel’s mind was racing: _what on earth…?_ he thought. _Have I missed something?_

Taking a deep breath, Clark collected himself and continued, now with a small smile, “Since then, even as Luke’s and my relationship has healed, you have remained a steady, secondary father figure in his life all these years.”

His mouth dropping open, Hershel felt heat rise to his face. “Oh, I… I do apologize if I have overstepped my boundaries. I would hate to ever come between you and Luke, Clark.”

“There’s no need to apologize!” Brenda said, raising a placating hand. “It’s just the opposite, in fact. We _love_ that you have been such a good influence for Luke these past five years. We couldn’t have hand-picked a better role model and friend for him.”

“Oh…” Hershel blinked in surprise; for a moment, he had been expecting the conversation to go in a different direction.

“So, with all that being said, ever since we decided to move back to London earlier this year…” Brenda bit at her lip nervously, “Clark and I have been discussing the idea of… well, _co-parenting_ , we’ve decided to call it.”

“Co…parenting?” Hershel repeated slowly.

“If you agree,” Clark said, “you would become more of a literal father figure to Luke, as in, the three of us would share in raising him.”

Hershel’s jaw dropped again – he was sure he must have looked like a fish, his mouth hanging open so much – and he found he could not speak, he was so baffled.

Brenda began to pace the driveway as she elaborated, “When Clark and I first started talking about the idea, we weren’t sure how we would make it work. Of course, when we lived in London before, Luke had spent a lot of time at your flat; he would sometimes sleep in your guestroom after coming back late from an adventure. Since he is already familiar with and comfortable in your flat, we thought that maybe he would live with us part of the time and with you part of the time…”

“…But that just seemed unnecessarily complicated,” Clark continued. “So, for a while, we put the idea on the backburner; we figured there was no point in altering our situation when we know that you and Luke would remain thick as thieves regardless.”

“But then tonight during supper…” Brenda said, pointing a thumb over her shoulder towards the front porch, “you mentioned you were missing Flora being around – maybe feeling a bit lonely? And with your flat’s rent recently having increased, well…” She looked to Clark.

“When you said that, Brenda and I had the same idea: you could move in with us, rent-free. We have two extra rooms in the house; we were going to use them as a home office and a guestroom, but the guestroom could be your bedroom, Hershel.”

“It would be much easier for a co-parenting arrangement if we all lived together,” Brenda said, before looking to Clark briefly, then back to Hershel, “that is… if you _want_ to give the co-parenting thing a try. If you don’t… the offer to live with us still stands, of course, we just…” She trailed off.

Hershel finally found his tongue. His head was still reeling, but he had to say something, to let the Tritons know how he was feeling.

“I…” he swallowed, “I think I do. I’d like to move in with you and I… I want to try co-parenting. I am deeply honored that you would even consider me to raise Luke alongside of you.”

“Of _course_ , Hershel,” Brenda said, a smile finally returning to her face, “we always trusted you to keep Luke safe on your wild adventures together, didn’t we?”

Hershel chuckled sheepishly. “Fair point, but…” There was something nagging at him that he did not know how to put into words.

Clark could read him like a book, though; they had known each other for twenty years, after all. “You’re nervous that this will affect your friendship with Luke…?”

“Well, yes,” Hershel sighed. “A friendship is different than a father-son relationship. I value my friendship with Luke so much… I know he has not been much of a rebel through his adolescent years, but teens often grow to resent their parents and… Obviously, I wouldn’t want him to feel that way towards you two, either, but I would hate to lose that friendship by becoming a parental figure…”

“Teens don’t always do that,” Brenda said. “I don’t remember ever resenting my parents, or at least not seriously.”

“Well, I didn’t really, either…” Hershel conceded with a shrug.

“It really depends on the health of the relationship,” Clark said. “You and Luke are close, of course, and while we’ve had our ups and downs, the three of us have really reunited as a family, once things were cleared up in Misthallery. It won’t always be easy, certainly, but I don’t think we should worry too much about your friendship.”

Eyebrows knit together, Hershel swallowed and nodded.

“Give it some thought, Hershel,” Brenda said, taking his hand in hers. “We can wait however long you need for an answer. We’ve sprung this on you rather suddenly; I know you had told us ‘yes’ earlier, but Clark and I would completely understand if you change your mind, once you’ve had time to think it through more.”

Clark held up a finger. “Oh, and I should say, we would not expect you to share financial obligations for Luke. Brenda and I would continue to handle that ourselves.”

“Right,” Brenda said, nodding, “we care more about raising Luke with you, with your love and care, that’s the important thing. So… let us know, alright?” She went in for a hug to say goodbye. “Thank you again for all of your help today.”

“Yes, you’re a brick, as always, Hershel!” Clark said, shaking his hand before pulling Hershel in for an embrace, as well. “We’ll let you go home now, I promise! Goodnight!”

“Yes, goodnight…” Hershel said distantly.

As they had been speaking, Hershel, still dumbfounded, considered everything they had told him. While the Tritons headed back towards their house, Hershel thought, _this makes a surprising amount of sense._ _I would still have a positive influence in Luke’s life, regardless of our living situation, given our friendship. But Brenda and Clark are being so generous to open their home to me, and vulnerable to come to me with this… It really would be an honor to support and raise Luke with them…_

“Wait,” he said quietly. They stopped and turned back around.

Hershel approached them, and one by one, he looked the Tritons firmly in the eyes. It was difficult to keep his voice steady through the emotion he felt.

“I don’t need any more time to think over my answer. It’s yes, definitely yes.” His heart pounding hard in his chest, he smiled his biggest smile of the whole day that had already been so joyful. “I _want_ to do this with you.”

Bursting out in giggles, Brenda clasped her hands to her chest in excitement; Clark grabbed Hershel is a bear hug, which Brenda soon joined, as well; they both poured out words of joy and appreciation. Hershel felt tears well up in his eyes out of the blue and laughed as they began to stream down his face. He was not sure of what the future had in store and there was much that the three of them, along with Luke, would need to discuss and figure out in the weeks and months to come. But in that moment, all uncertainties and doubts hardly seemed to matter at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Come say hello: detective-kat.tumblr.com


	4. Chapter 4

In the days to follow, between Hershel’s lecture schedule and the Tritons unpacking boxes and getting their new house in order, Clark, Brenda, and Hershel discussed their plans for their future together, particularly how they would tell Luke about their new arrangement. It was soon agreed upon that they would wait a week or two to tell him, since they did not want to overwhelm him with more change during their big transition of moving back to England; even if it was a good change, there was no need to rush things when they were already so busy. They also decided that Hershel would not move in with them for a month or so, to allow for the Tritons to get settled into their new house and for Hershel to pack up his flat and give his landlord notice that he would be moving out.

Since Luke was home-schooled, the Tritons had to be careful with their phone calls to Hershel to talk about their plans, ensuring that Luke was either otherwise occupied or out and about; it was not that they suspected he would intentionally eavesdrop, but it was easy to overhear things accidently. By the end of that first week, Hershel, Brenda, and Clark had decided to only have their private discussions in Hershel’s office at Gressenheller, just to be safe.

That Friday afternoon, they were talking over their plans to move Hershel into the house as well as parenting dynamics. As they discussed things, Hershel was just thinking over how they were going to tell Luke about their intensions to start co-parenting when they heard footsteps stop outside Hershel’s office door. His hall did not usually have much traffic, as there were only faculty offices on it, and he was not expecting any other visitors, so it caught their attention, causing them to pause their conversation.

There was a knock at the door before Luke popped his head in. “Hey, professor- oh, hey Mum and Dad!” He looked between the three of them inquisitively. “Sorry, I finished my school reading early today, so I thought I’d go exploring on my bike and stop by the campus. I can come back later if you’re busy here, though.”

Hershel didn’t know what to say. He was not going to lie to his apprentice, of course, and he was so used to telling him everything; they were friends, after all. But he did not know what Brenda and Clark wanted to do, or how they wanted to tell Luke.

“Oh, well, we were just, er…” He exchanged a look with the Tritons, who then in turn looked to each other before returning his gaze. Smiling, they just shrugged, as if to say, _we did our best to keep it a secret!_ “Come on in, my boy,” Hershel said, waving a beckoning hand.

Smiling, Luke fully entered Hershel’s office and closed the door behind him. “So what’s up?”

“Well…” he let out a breathy chuckle, “your parents and I have been talking about the future. They were gracious enough to invite me to move in with you all. With Flora being out of the house, I’ve been a bit lonely recently, and as my flat’s rent was raised, I-”

Luke did not need to hear the rest of his explanation before he threw his arms around Brenda in a hug.

“Oh, wow!” he said with a huge grin as he sat down between his parents. “What a great idea, you guys!”

“I’m relieved you think so,” Hershel said, with a more relaxed laugh. “I know it will be a big change on top of your big move…”

“That’s okay! I mean, you and I spend so much time together anyway, and you and Mum and Dad are such good friends… it just makes sense!” He turned to Clark, “Where will the professor sleep?”

“We will probably make the guestroom his bedroom. He’ll be moving in in about three weeks, so we’ll have plenty of time to prepare.”

“Well, great! I’m sure you have a lot to talk about.” Luke stood up. “I’ll head out, then.”

“What’s your hurry, love?” Brenda asked, smiling curiously.

Luke looked a bit embarrassed. “Well… I mainly came over here to give the professor a puzzle I thought up earlier, but it’s kind of based on an inside joke from one of our adventures and it’d be kind of hard explain with all the context, so…”

Hershel smiled with amusement. “I’d love to have a look at it, tomorrow perhaps?”

“Okay!” Luke said, beaming, “I’ll stop by during your office hours. See you then, professor!”

He turned to go, but Clark said, “Hershel… aren’t you going to tell Luke about our… _other_ plans?” He inclined his head toward Luke.

“Oh, er, yes,” Hershel said. He had changed his mind about how he wanted to tell Luke about their co-parenting idea, but he hadn’t discussed the specifics with the Tritons yet. He needed to buy himself some time. “Luke, would you like to go to the zoo this weekend? I don’t have any cases on the horizon, but I thought we could go on an ‘adventure,’ or sorts, anyway.”

Luke’s eyes lit up. “Yeah! That sounds great!” He turned puppy-dog eyes onto his parents. “May I?”

“As long as you finish your schoolwork by Friday evening,” Clark said.

“I will!” Luke said with a determined nod. “Bye, professor! See you back home, Mum and Dad.” Luke gave a farewell wave, which the adults returned, before he left Hershel’s office.

Once Luke was gone, the atmosphere of the room became more solemn.

Brenda looked at Hershel, concerned. “Hershel… have you changed your mind about…?” Eyebrows furrowed, Clark looked like he was about to say the same thing.

“Of course not,” Hershel said gently. “I definitely still want to do it. I just got to thinking… what if we don’t ever directly tell Luke about our co-parenting? As in, the three of us act as co-parents to him, but we don’t ever actually address it…?” Hershel shook his head and leaned back into the sofa. “Oh, never mind, that sounds like a bad idea, now that I say it aloud…”

“No, I understand you, Hershel,” Clark waggled a hand to stop Hershel’s backtracking train of thought. “Sometimes it can be best to let things happen naturally. Instead of coming right out and telling him, ‘Luke, the professor is going to be like a second dad to you now,’ you would just start parenting him with us, no preamble.”

“Or at least, we could wait a while before telling him.”

Brenda nodded; she looked much relieved by Hershel’s words. “And it’s not like things will even change that much. You two are good friends, but you have always had a mentoring and caring way about you, and Luke, of course, really respects you.”

“Right,” Clark said, “the main difference will be that, since you will be living with us, you’ll have to have a say in things like rules and discipline.”

Hershel felt his stomach churn a bit at the thought. “Ah… yes.” He pressed his lips together. “I had not considered that…”

“Discipline is a natural part of parenthood, Hershel,” Brenda said. “But you know Luke: he has never been much of a trouble-maker!”

Clark lighting punched Hershel’s arm. “And that’s partially thanks to you, since you were such a good influence on him in his younger years!”

A small smile returns to Hershel’s face. “Ah, well… thank you.”

“We’d better be heading out,” Brenda said, turning to Clark. “You have your 3:15 lecture, right?”

“Ah, yes,” Clark said, checking his watch. “I still need to make copies of the handout for my students.” They both stood.

Hershel went to open his office door for them. “Thank you for stopping by! We’ll talk more later?”

“Of course,” Brenda said. She smiled excitedly at both Hershel and Clark. “This is really coming together!”

“Yes,” Hershel nodded. “I had been feeling nervous about the whole concept of co-parenting earlier, but just discussing it with you two makes it feel more and more feasible and… _real_.”

“Same here,” Clark said, “It’s good to know we’re on the same page so far!”

The three of them said their goodbyes and Hershel returned to his desk to prepare for a meeting he had with a student later. Doing something familiar helped him to organize his thoughts about the new situation. It had been a week since the Tritons had first asked him to co-parent with them and Hershel still couldn’t quite believe it. But it was a good kind of incredulity, the best kind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Come say hello at detective-kat.tumblr.com


	5. Chapter 5

It was Hershel’s last night in his flat. He laid in bed, staring at the ceiling he had stared at nearly every night for the past eight years. It did not seem like it had been nearly that long; time had really flown by. Flora had only been in his care for three years before she moved out to attend university, so for over half the time he had been in that flat, he had lived alone. He had gotten used to it and had long been accustomed to silence and solitude. He was an introvert, so he had not minded it too much, though he did sometimes get lonely.

So, the fact that tomorrow, he would move into a house with three other people was both exciting and a bit daunting, if he was honest with himself. Hershel had never been one for change, but at least he had had a month to mentally adjust for his big move. Additionally, it was a comfort to remember that those three people he would be living with were very near and dear to him.

Even so, he knew that being friends with people did not always mean that living with them would be easy. There would definitely be some transition as they all got used to each other, rubbing elbows, waiting for each other to get out of the bathroom, dealing with mood swings and personal differences: loving each other, warts and all. But living together and seeing those different sides of each other, Hershel also knew, would likely bring them closer together in a different, more genuine way, and he very much looked forward to that.

* * *

There was a buzz of excitement in the crisp, winter air as the Tritons greeted Hershel and his small, rented moving truck in front of their house. It would not take too long; Hershel had not had a lot of furniture to begin with and the pieces that would become redundant to bring to the Tritons’ house, he gave to Flora for her and her roommates to use or put into storage.

“So, what should I call the professor now?” Luke asked as he and Clark carried Hershel’s desk through the kitchen on their way to Hershel’s new bedroom.

Hershel was following behind them, carrying a box of books. He and Clark exchanged a look over Luke’s head. A list of fatherly titles – _father, pa, dad, pop_ – ran through Hershel’s mind before he brushed those away. _It’s not time yet,_ he thought.

He smiled curiously. “Why would you need to call me something new?”

“Well, you’re going to be living with us now! You’re like an uncle or something!”

Brenda held Hershel’s bedroom door open for Clark and Luke to bring in the desk. “Hmm,” she mused, “Uncle Hershel…” She giggled at the sound of it. “What do you think, Hershel?”

“Well, do as you like, Luke, but I would be happy to continue to be ‘professor’ to you, really,” Hershel said, setting the box of books down.

“Okay… Ohh, what about ‘ _Uncle Professor_ ’?” Luke burst into a silly laugh.

“I don’t think Luke’s going to let the ‘uncle’ thing go, Hershel,” Clark said with a chuckle.

He and Luke got the desk into place where Hershel had asked for it to be, right in front of the window overlooking the garden. Hershel’s new bedroom was nearly complete. It was rectangular in shape, providing him with plenty of space for a small office area and plenty of bookshelves. Most of his belongings were in place by this point, and Brenda already had put up some billowy, light orange curtains on he window; _once I get the bed made_ , he thought, _it’ll really feel homey._

“What do you think, professor?” Luke said, looking around at the room.

“It’s really coming together!”

“I still can’t believe you’ll be living with us now!” Luke said as everyone headed out of Hershel’s room. He pointed to a door down the hall, “My room’s right there, by the way!”

“Luke, why don’t you give the professor a tour?” Clark said as Clark and Brenda headed back downstairs to get more of Hershel’s boxes. “I’m sure he could use a refresher from when he helped us move over a month ago.”

“Sure!” Bounding down the hall, Luke led the way. They visited his bedroom first.

“Do you have a door puzzle I need to solve first?” Hershel said with a wink.

“No, not this time!” Luke grinned at the memory of their first meeting.

Luke’s bedroom had many of the decorations Hershel remembered from when he and Emmy had visited his room in Misthallery. Unsurprisingly, light blue was the main color of his décor. Luke now had three, full bookshelves containing an impressive collection of books of various sizes, genres, and topics. Similar to Hershel’s room, a large window overlooked the garden and the pond was visible from it.

Luke still had the framed world map from his childhood bedroom, though now there were pins on several cities and towns of various continents, marking the places that he had visited with Hershel on their many adventures. Hershel smiled at the sight, remembering how eager Luke had been to see the world. Luke walked over and joined him in admiring the map, appreciating the pins as if each were a major accomplishment.

 _I hope we can still go on adventures, even now that our circumstances have changed,_ Hershel thought, mellowing a bit. _I hope I can show him even more of the world._

“Luke…” he said, turning to face the boy, “I must say I appreciate how gracious you’ve been with all of this. Living in the same house, all of us together, will be fun, but it’ll have its challenges, too. I hope things don’t change too much between you and me.”

“I don’t think they will, professor,” Luke said, confidence in his eyes. “Back when we were in ‘Future London,’” he used air quotes, “you told me that distance and time apart doesn’t affect friendships like ours. Well, don’t you think the opposite is true, too?”

Hershel smiled slowly in agreement.

“Being housemates and seeing each other all the time might be _kind_ of weird at first and might take some getting used to, but we’ll always be friends, no matter what!”

Hershel’s smile grew; relief melted the tension in his stomach. “I always knew you were intelligent beyond your years, Luke, but sometimes I think you’re even wiser than me.”

Luke returned his smile. “I really am happy about this, professor. I missed you so much while I was in America.”

“I missed you, too, my boy. It was a long two years apart, eh?”

“But now you’re stuck with us!” Luke said teasingly.

As they left Luke’s room together to continue the tour, Hershel chuckled and tousled Luke’s hair. “I wouldn’t have it any other way!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Come say hello at detective-kat.tumblr.com


	6. Chapter 6

Hershel had always been an early bird (at least, when he went to bed at a decent time). When he went down to the kitchen the next morning to make himself breakfast at 6 a.m., he was surprised to find Brenda already awake, as well. She was just putting on the kettle to boil.

“Morning, Hershel!” she said brightly, looking over her shoulder as he came into the kitchen. “Tea will be ready in just a few.”

“Thank you, Brenda,” he replied, stifling a yawn.

“I hope you slept well in your new bedroom!”

“I did; it’s very comfortable, thank you!” He approached the cupboard to the left of the stove. “And the teacups are… here?”

“Other side,” Brenda said, opening the cupboard to her right and taking out two teacups.

“Ah, of course! It’ll take me a while to learn a new kitchen.”

They selected their teas of choice from the pantry and prepared their teacups

“I’m surprised you’re up so early. Clark had told me that when you two were undergrad roommates, you slept in every chance you got!”

Hershel chuckled. “Not so much anymore. While my sleep schedule tends to fluctuate with whatever projects I’m working on, I do enjoy mornings now.”

“Hmm-mm,” Brenda hummed in agreement. She looked out the window above the sink. “Mornings are nice: the world is so quiet and still, just for a few moments.”

They appreciated the view out the window for a few moments before the kettle startled to whistle; Hershel filled their teacups with the hot water.

“Do you take it black?” Hershel asked.

“No, I have to put some sugar in mine.” Brenda reached for the sugar jar. “You?”

“I only put milk into some kinds of tea. I don’t add anything to English Breakfast.”

Outside it began to rain lightly.

“I will say, I liked how it didn’t rain so much in New York,” Brenda said, fiddling with the teacup handle. “but there is just something about a rainy English morning. I hadn’t realized some of the little things I had missed until I returned.” She took a sip of her tea and smiled fondly. “Did Clark tell you how he told me he wanted to move back?”

Hershel shook his head.

“He ordered a tin of tea that is only sold at that London tea shop we love.”

“Drury Tea, in Covent Garden, right?”

Brenda nodded. “I had run out of my favorite blend last year and hadn’t had any more of it since. One day, he made us both some tea and without telling me, he brewed that tea for me. I recognized it as soon as I smelled it. It tasted just as good I remembered; I nearly cried. Then he just said, ‘Do you want to go back?’” Brenda tittered a bit. “Then I _did_ cry.”

“Clark always has had a way with romantic gestures, hasn’t he?” Hershel smiled knowingly, then took a sip of his tea.

“He has. His career change was just as much for Luke and me as it was for him. He knew I hated living so far away from my parents – they’re in their eighties now, you know – and Luke really missed his friends, especially you, Hershel.”

“I’m glad everything turned out well, in the end.”

“Me, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Come say hello: detective-kat.tumblr.com


	7. Chapter 7

Hershel’s first week living with the Tritons was relatively uneventful. Every weekday, he and Clark drove to and from the university in Hershel’s car to save on petrol; Brenda took her own car to the museum. Being home-schooled, Luke would stay at the house, but on his breaks from schoolwork, he went out on his bike to run errands Brenda gave him or to meet with friends. If he was riding nearby, he always stopped by Gressenheller to visit Hershel and Clark, though, being a new professor, Clark’s schedule was not nearly as open and welcome to random visitors as Hershel’s. Some days, Luke brought his school work to do in Hershel's office.

While the adults were busy during the day, they always managed to eat supper together. Brenda and Clark traded off on cooking, depending on who got home from work first; while Hershel was not much of a cook, he enjoyed cleaning up the kitchen afterwards. Luke was less than enthusiastic about washing dishes, but Hershel reminded him, “A true gentleman does his fair share.” Luke just smiled and rolled his eyes.

The Friday of that first week, they made plans to spend some quality time together, all four of them, that night; the adults didn’t have any evening meetings, Hershel didn’t have any Friday lectures, and Clark’s last lecture of the day was in the afternoon. That morning before the adults left for work, Clark had suggested that they all make supper together, play a board game, and maybe watch a movie, calling it a “family night.” Flustered at his own word choice, he glanced to Hershel to acknowledge the blunder, but Hershel only smiled. _A family night_ , he thought, _that sounds nice._

“It’s tradition to make breakfast for supper on Fridays!” Luke excitedly informed Hershel as the adults put their overcoats on at the front door.

“You’d eat breakfast food every meal, if you could, love!” Brenda said, wrapping a scarf around her neck.

“Would it be alright if Flora stopped by tonight, as well?” Hershel asked.  

“Of course!” Clark said. “Does she have time to stay for family night?”

“Perhaps just for supper, but probably not our other activities; she said she will be at the library most of this weekend.”

“She works so hard! I wish we could see her more…” Luke said.

“Yes,” Brenda agreed, “but a short visit with her is better than nothing!”

Hershel picked up his satchel and the adults were about to head out the door when Clark turned back to look at Luke.

“You’re on chapter 15 of your Literature textbook, right, son?”

Luke shook his head. “Finished it yesterday. I’m starting 16 today.”

“Ah, good, you’ll be ahead of schedule for next week,” Brenda said. “And make sure to finish-”

“My statistics practice problems, I know, mum!” Luke laughed. He looked to Hershel. “Do _you_ have anything for me?”

Shaking his head, Hershel held out his empty hands. “It appears you’re all sorted, my boy! Although, you may want to check the left drawer of the living room coffee table. Andrew wanted me to pass that puzzle along to you.”

Luke smiled excitedly. “Oh, thanks!”

“Alright, we should be heading out, now,” Clark said, finally stepping out onto the front porch.

“Have a good day!” Luke called as the adults headed to their cars.

* * *

That evening, after everyone got home from work, preparations for their family night began. The Tritons and Hershel gathered in the kitchen; Clark started taking out ingredients from the refrigerator and cupboards while Luke got out the pancake griddle from where it was stored in the pantry.

“Alright, Hershel,” Brenda said, “it’s time to assign you a task for making breakfast-for-supper!”

Luke started preheating the griddle. “Yep! Everyone has their own job. Dad’s in charge of the scrambled eggs, Mum does the bacon, and I make the pancakes.” He looked to his parents. “I guess we’ll have to add a food?”

“I’m decent at cutting fruit,” Hershel offered. “We have plenty in the fridge, do we not?”

Clark, who was already rummaging in the fridge for other ingredients, opened the fruit drawer. “Let’s see… strawberries, apples, blueberries, two peaches…”

“And bananas, too!” Luke said, pointing to the bunch on the kitchen counter.

“I think that should be enough,” Brenda said.

As he was more familiar with the kitchen now, Hershel was able to find a knife and a cutting board with ease. As he washed the fruit, the others got busy with their tasks around the kitchen: Clark at the stove with the carton of eggs and a large pan, Brenda, next to him, laying out strips of bacon on a pan of her own, and Luke mixing the pancake batter. Bustling about the kitchen, they brought each other up to speed on the events of their day.

“Remember those pancake puzzles Sally gave us back in Folsense?” Luke asked Hershel. “They were so fun!”

“Indeed,” Hershel said, stirring his large bowl of fruit, “Her pancakes looked delicious; I wish we had had time to try them for ourselves!”

Just then, the doorbell rang.

“That must be Flora.” Hershel wiped his hands on a towel.

“Great! Go ahead and let her in,” Clark said, looking over his shoulder.

Leaving the happy chaos of the kitchen behind, Hershel walked down the hall to the front door. When he opened it, he saw Flora through a flurry of white.

“Hey, dad!” she said through a bluster of wind.

“Oh, dear, I didn’t even realize it was snowing!” Hershel offered Flora his hand, leading her through the front door.

“Yes, it just started a few minutes ago!” Flora said, taking off her white-powdered winter coat.

Hershel kissed her cheek, took the coat from her, and hung it up in the coat closet. They started walking back down the hall towards the kitchen.

“Well, I’m glad you arrived safely. I can drive you back to campus afterwards, if you need to.”

“I can drive in snow, dad!” Flora said, hugging him as the walked.

When they entered the kitchen, Luke was the first to greet her. “Flora!” He dropped his spatula and ran to give her a big hug.

“Aw, hello, Luke!” Flora laughed. “Who gave you permission to grow this much? You came up to my nose the last time I saw you; now I have to look up to you!”

Luke grinned victoriously. “See, I told you I would be taller than you one day!”

Once the Tritons all said their hellos to her, Flora said, “Everything smells delicious. I wish I could have come sooner, but I just got out of class. What can I do to help?”

Returning to the stove, Brenda added some seasonings to the bacon. “Flora, dear, if you would set the table and get the butter and maple syrup; I believe we’re almost ready.”

Hershel got the plates and silverware for Flora and she readied the table, making neat place settings for everyone. By that point, Clark’s eggs were fluffy and a rich yellow, Brenda’s bacon gave off a lovely aroma, Luke had a tall tower of pancakes, and Hershel’s mixed fruit bowl was bursting with color.

“I’m really glad Dad is living with you all now,” Flora said as they started eating. “He had missed having company around. I was going to commute to university from our old flat, but the drive was just too long.”

“Now, Flora,” Brenda said, passing the maple syrup to Luke, “I know Hershel told us that things are going well with your dormmates at uni. But if you ever need a change of scenery, or a quiet place to study or rest, you’re always welcome here.”

“Yes, this can be your home away from home… er, dorm!” Clark chimed in.

Flora smiled warmly at them both. “Well, after my _unusual_ childhood, it really is nice to have somewhere to come home to.”

“Should we plan on you staying here during holidays, when the dorms are closed?”

“That’s very kind of you,” Flora said, fiddling with her fork, “but I will probably stay with my roommate, Kate, and her family over breaks.” A blush came to her face, and Flora’s smile became a bit shy. “A few days ago, she… actually asked me to be her girlfriend, and I said yes, so-”

Excited cheers and laughs broke out at the table, causing Flora to giggle, then finally laugh out loud, harder than Hershel had seen in a while. Her apple birthmark appeared on her neck. Warmth flooded Hershel’s chest. Flora worked and studied so hard for her nurse training, and while she managed the stress well, it did his heart good to see Flora so happy.

“Sorry, Dad, I was going to tell you sooner,” Flora said when the commotion died down.

“Think nothing of it, my dear,” Hershel said, taking her hand. “I’m so happy for you.” He addressed the rest of the table, “Flora will have to introduce you to Kate sometime soon. You two have been friends, what, three years?” Flora nodded.

“Yeah, I can’t wait to meet her!” Luke said, a huge smile still on his face.

The five of them continued to eat and chat, the conversation light and easy-going from the happy news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Come say hello: detective-kat.tumblr.com


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the little hiatus! The spring semester started recently, so I've been readjusting to college life, but things are going well!

The next Saturday morning, Luke was headed out the door, his football in tow.

“Daniel and I are going to Havelock!” he called for any nearby adults to hear. Havelock Recreation Ground was one of Luke’s favorite places to go when the weather permitted.

Sitting in an armchair in the living room, Hershel looked up from his newspaper.

“Have fun!” he said.

“Thanks!” Luke said, turning back to look at him. “We haven’t played soccer in ages.”

Hershel’s lip quirked in amusement. “I believe you mean football?”

Luke smacked his own forehead, looking at the ball tucked under his arm. “Ugh, I did it again! Why can’t all countries just call it the same thing?”

Clark came into the living room, dressed in his gardening clothes; it was weeding day, if Hershel remembered properly. “I’m sure it’s just to spite you personally, Luke,” he said, having heard their conversation.

Luke smiled and rolled his eyes at his father’s playful sarcasm.

“You’re going to Havelock?”

“Yeah!” Luke said excitedly.

“It’s near the train station, remember, so stay away from the tracks. Trains can come out of nowhere and take at least a mile to come to a complete stop.”

“I know, I know, we’ll be safe!” Luke opened the front door. “See you later!”

Watching him go, Hershel looked to Clark. “He and Daniel have been friends for a while.”

“Yes,” Clark said, pulling on his gardening gloves, “they met shortly after our move from Misthallery. Daniel goes to public school, though, so they usually see each other on the weekends.

“And then during the week, he usually hangs out with his two fellow home-schooled friends, Richard and Alex, after they finish their schoolwork, correct?” Hershel had only seen Luke’s friends a few times, so he needed all the review he could get of the details of Luke’s social life.

Clark nodded. “He met them through our home-schooling group that we’re a part of.”

“I’m glad Luke has kept old friendships as well as made new friends since moving back.”

“I am too; it’s certainly helped with the transition back to the UK!” Clark peered out the window to see the front lawn. “Well, I had better get out there in the garden; I’d like to get my moutan peony sprouts planted today, since it hasn’t been too frosty out lately.”

Hershel closed his newspaper. “I’m all caught up on grading, so I don’t have much to do today. I’m a little rusty on gardening, but would you mind if I join you?”

“Not at all!” Clark scratched the back of his head, looking a bit sheepish. “I’m… not exactly caught up grading all of _my_ papers, but I have all of tomorrow to finish!”

Hershel chuckled. “You’ll figure out a grading schedule that works for you before you know it!”

The two men went out and started working in the garden; with it being early February, it was still quite chilly out, but there was not much wind that day, so it did not feel as cold as it could have. About two hours later, Brenda arrived home from visiting a friend across town.

“Oh, the peonies are looking nice!” she said, getting out of her car.

Clark and Hershel got up from where they had been kneeling in the soil to greet her.

“Clark has finally put you to work, eh, Hershel?” she teased.

“It seems so!” Hershel said with a laugh, dusting off his gloves.

“Luke is out with Daniel, by the way,” Clark informed her.

“I saw them riding their bikes on my way; I think he was headed home.”

“Ah, there he is,” Hershel said, looking down their street to see Luke approaching, his football held in his bike’s basket.

Despite the chill in the air, he was sweaty from playing, and from beneath his bike helmet, his hair was mussed. As he grew nearer, Luke smiled and waved at the three of them, but Hershel noticed something slightly off about his expression. He could not put his finger on it, though.

“Hey, sweetheart,” Brenda called. “Did you two have fun at the park?”

Dismounting from his bike, Luke said, “Yeah, we practiced dribbling and body feints.” He walked his bike into the open garage, leaned it against a side wall, took off his grass-stained shoes, and entered the house from the garage door. “I’m going to go shower.”

Brenda went inside, as well, and Clark returned to his kneeling position in the potting soil. Hershel, however, noticed something that had fallen from Luke’s shoes as he had removed them; he went into the garage and stooped down. Looking more closely, he saw what appeared to be a few small rocks that had not been there before. He picked them up and studied them. They looked familiar, but he was not certain where from. He did not have a good feeling about his find, but he decided to just pocket them for now and resume gardening with Clark.

They finished up about half an hour later; Clark showed Hershel where the gardening tools were stored in the garage.

“Thanks for the help, Hershel!” Clark said, hanging his trowel on a peg on his workbench. “The peonies should come in nicely!”

Hershel returned the gardening gloves he had borrowed from Clark. “Well, I don’t know how much help I was, but it was enjoyable!”

His clothes had gotten a bit dirtied – fortunately, they were just his loungewear – so he headed upstairs to his bedroom to put them in his dirty laundry hamper and change into clean clothes. While doing so, he took out the pebbles he had found earlier, dropped from the crevices of Luke’s shoes. He felt that he should ask Luke about them.

Entering the upstairs hallway, Hershel saw Luke’s bedroom door was ajar; a few weeks ago, he and the Tritons had agreed that closed bedroom doors during the day signaled that the person within wanted to have some alone time. Therefore, he thought it would be alright to knock.

“Come in,” Hershel heard Luke say. He found him reclined on his bed, reading. He sat up as Hershel entered.

“Hello, my boy,” he said.

Luke gave him a half-smile; it was not nearly as spirited as usual. “Hi, professor…”

“Football must have worn you out, hmm?”

“Yeah, it usually does.”

Hershel pressed his lips together, uncertain of how to proceed.

“May I sit down?” he asked, gesturing to the foot of the bed. Luke nodded, and he did so. Hershel looked around Luke’s bedroom a moment before thinking, _there’s no point in putting this off._ “I, er… I found these in the garage; they had fallen from your shoes.” He held out the pebbles for Luke to see. “If I am not mistaken, they’re ballasts: small stones that help hold train rails in place.” He raised a concerned eyebrow.

“Oh, er… Daniel and I might have gotten… a _little_ too close to the railway.”

 “‘A little?’” Hershel pressed, offering a small smile.

Averting his eyes. Luke sighed. “Well… we had to go over the pedestrian crossing to get to the park. So we got off our bikes and walked them over as we crossed, just to be safe. But once we got to the other side, my football fell out of my bike basket and landed right next to the tracks.” Luke scrubbed a hand over his face. “Daniel was just going to grab it and leave, but I set down my bike and got up on the beam, walking along and balancing. Daniel got on the other one and we saw who could balance the longest. That… must’ve been when I got the ballasts stuck in the bottoms of my shoes.” He swung his legs over the side of the bed and looked down at his feet.

Hershel tilted his head. “I see.”

“We double checked both ways to make sure there were no trains coming and the coast was clear!” Luke said, looking up, before realizing the argument was in vain. “Well, eventually we did hear one coming, but we got off of the tracks immediately. But... I know we should have been playing around on the rails.”

“Indeed. Railways can be very dangerous.”

“And Dad just reminded me about that this morning…” Luke blew out his lips. “I should probably tell Mum and Dad what I did…” Turning his head, he met Hershel’s eyes. “A gentleman always confesses to his mistakes, right?”

Hershel put a hand to Luke’s shoulder. “That’s right. Come; I think they’re downstairs.” They both stood, and Luke led the way out into the hall.

Before going down the stairs, Hershel asked, “Do you want me to be there with you?”

Luke gave a small nod. “Yeah… if you don’t mind.”

“Of course not.”

Luke called his parents into the living room. He fidgeted briefly before taking a deep breath and telling them what had happened at the railway. Hershel watched as Clark and Brenda’s faces took on looks of worry, but, unsurprisingly, they did not show any signs of anger at hearing Luke’s confession. Hershel could not imagine them ever raising their voices at Luke.

“Thank you for telling us, Luke,” Brenda said once Luke had finished, standing up to give him a hug. “That takes a lot of courage.”

“Well… I had some encouragement from the professor,” Luke said, glancing at Hershel.

“Regardless,” Clark said, embracing Luke, as well, “we’re proud of you for doing the right thing, and we’re very thankful neither you or Daniel got hurt today.” He looked over to Brenda. “Your mum and I will discuss what to do about discipline.”

“Yes, let’s go to the kitchen a moment,” Brenda said. “Hershel… would you join us, please?” He could see it in her eyes that she was serious in her request.

After a moment of hesitation, he said quietly, “Certainly.”

But as Hershel followed the Tritons into the kitchen, he could not help but feel that he had gotten too involved, that he had overstepped some boundary. _Was it really my place to confront Luke and then be present while he told Brenda and Clark?_ he wondered.

Once the three adults arrived in the kitchen, the words seemed to pour out of Hershel, “I’m sorry, I should I gone to you two first, I just thought Luke was acting strangely and then he just told me the whole story…”

“You thought he was acting strangely?” Clark asked. “How do you mean?”

“He seemed distant when he came home, avoiding eye contact, which is very unusual for him, and I saw railroad ballasts fall from his shoes. When I asked him about it, I didn’t anticipate him confessing to me first, I’m sure he would have told you two eventually, had I not come to him about it, but…”

“Hershel, Hershel,” Brenda said soothingly, “it’s fine! We’re not offended that he told you first.” She sat down at the breakfast nook, gesturing for Hershel to sit, as well.

Clark nodded as he sat next to her. “Right; you’re co-parenting with us. Dealing with behavioral issues is all part of the job! That’s why we asked you to come with us to the kitchen; we want you to be involved in this process, too.”

“You… do…?” Hershel said, mind reeling a bit. “That’s right… you had told me that a few weeks ago…” He cleared his throat. “This still feels a bit odd; I’ve only ever chided Luke for when he’s been a bit too blunt or hot tempered during our adventures, never for outright disobedience.”

“We rarely ever need to discipline him, either,” Clark agreed, rubbing his beard. “This part of parenting never get easier, unfortunately.”

“Well… I believe an apology to Daniel and his parents is in order, at least,” Hershel said after some thought, “as Luke was apparently the instigator for playing on the tracks.”

“Right; we’ll contact them first thing tomorrow,” Brenda said.

“And… perhaps Luke shouldn’t be allowed to go to Havelock Recreation Ground without parental supervision for… two weeks, perhaps?”

“That sounds fair,” Clark said. “He and Daniel can still play football, but it should be at either of our houses for those two weeks.”

The Tritons and Hershel went back into the living room, where Luke was waiting. They explained what they had decided to do, and Luke readily agreed to make amends. By suppertime, Luke was still a bit mellow, but he was smiling more genuinely than he had been.

Hershel gradually felt the weight of his earlier reluctances lift a bit; he had just met the hurdle of disciplining Luke for the first time, and, with Brenda and Clark’s help, it had not been nearly as bad as he had been dreading. Luke was not angry or resentful towards him, and he, as well as Brenda and Clark, had wanted to include him every step of the way. As he cleaned up after dinner, he thought, _Alright… I think I can do this._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I'd love to hear from you in the comments section! :)


	9. Chapter 9

After a long week and a half of incessantly gloomy weather, the first glimpses of spring appeared. With it, came an American tradition the Tritons had adopted: Spring Break, giving Luke a full week off of his schoolwork.

“But now that we’re back in England,” Luke said when he was explaining it to Hershel, “I guess we should call it ‘Spring Holiday’!”

Not very many of Luke’s other friends had the same schedule; his two fellow home-schooled friends had begged their parents to have Spring Holiday that week, as well, to no avail. So, Luke had to find other ways to have fun throughout the day while his friends were otherwise occupied. This was not difficult for him, as he had always been easily entertained.

The Tuesday of that holiday week, Hershel had a pleasant surprise for him. An old coworker of his father’s had contacted him about an unusual phenomena occurring in his town: people had recently been disappearing out of seemingly nowhere at a local theatre. Hershel and Luke sat at the kitchen table, drinking their afternoon tea, as they did whenever Hershel did not have an afternoon lecture.

“That really is weird…” Luke said thoughtfully after Hershel told him the details. Hershel could almost see the gears turning in Luke’s mind as he pondered the situation. “What is he going to do about it?”

“ _Well_ ,” Hershel said, inclining his head, “I believe he wants us to look into it.”

“O-oh!” Luke said, eyes growing wide.

The two friends shared an excited smile. The last time they had gone on a case together had been two years previous: the mystery Luke had discovered on his own soon after the Triton family’s move. Hershel had flown to America to help him get to the bottom of it. So, after so long without going on an adventure together, the opportunity to go on a new one was too exhilarating to pass up, especially since Luke already had the week off of his schoolwork.

The case, as they learned, was located in the town of Hershel’s dad’s friend, about three hours away. Luke was nearly vibrating with excitement to take a road trip in the Laytonmobile once again.

“You boys have fun!” Brenda said as they headed towards the door, their luggage in tow, in case they ended up needing to stay overnight for the case.

“Well, you always do!” Clark added.

Adjusting his hat, Hershel nodded. “It does appear to be an intriguing case!”

“Alright, let’s get going, then!” Luke slung his shoulder bag on. Hershel could tell he was impatient to get started.

Before opening the door, they turned around again at Brenda’s voice, “Oh, Hershel, by the way…”

“Yes, Brenda?” he asked.

“I thought you’d like to know that Flora and I are going out for coffee today. She had said she’d like to ask for some advice; just about regular couple-conflicts with Kate and about balancing work and school, she said. I’d be happy to help her out, but I wouldn’t want to replace you as the primary advice-giver in her life. Do you think I should hold back, or…?”

“Not at all, Brenda,” Hershel said, shaking his head, “Flora lost her mother as a young child and she was not very close to her father’s second wife, so she has really missed having a maternal presence in her life.”

“Yeah, mum!” Luke said, “She can be like the daughter you never had!” Clark nodded, wrapping an arm around her.

Brenda smiled slowly. “Well… alright, if you’re certain, Hershel.”

“Of course. I’m sure you two will have a lovely time together!” He turned to Luke. “Alright, young man, we’d better get going!”

“Yes!” Luke cheered, turning again to the front door and this time actually opening it.

The Tritons saw Hershel and Luke off, waving goodbye as they left the driveway. Luke sighed with contentment as he got settled in his usual passenger seat.

“Nice to be back!” he said.

“I wish you had been so appreciative of my car back in the old days,” Hershel teased as they got under way.

“Well, I guess it’s like the saying goes, ‘you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone’!” After a pause, Luke added, “I know I always poked fun at it as a kid, but it really is a nice car, professor!”

Hershel chuckled. “Thank you, my boy. But before you ask, no, you won’t be learning to drive in it, when the time comes.”

“Aw, why not?” Luke said, playfully pouting.

“I believe your parents would want you to use one of their cars, with their own car insurance, in case something should happen.” Hershel glanced to his left with a sly smile. “Besides, I doubt the Laytonmobile would be able to forgive you for the things you’ve said about her in the past!”

“Ha-ha, fair enough, I guess!”

It had been ages since their last road trip together, and yet it felt like nothing had changed; they picked up from where they had left off as their adventurous, puzzle-and-mystery-solving duo in no time. The three hours passed by relatively quickly for them, as conversation came easily with intermittent, comfortable stretches of silence.

Upon arrival at the small town, Hershel and Luke met with their client, Mr. Patrick Hodges, who had been a friend of Hershel’s family ever since his days in Stansbury. Mr. Hodges reviewed all the details of the situation to ensure they were all on the same page: ever since he had written his letter to Hershel to ask for his help, there had been more mysterious happenings at the town’s theatre in question: two more disappearances of various people at seemingly random intervals, making for twelve instances at the theatre in total. Everyone who had been mysteriously whisked away while at the theatre had since returned, safe and sound, after several hours of being gone, but with no memory of where they had disappeared to.

Once they were all caught up, Hershel and Luke bid Mr. Hodges goodbye and began their investigations, exploring the theatre and interviewing locals, especially those who had witnessed the peculiar happenings in person. And of course, they solved every puzzle presented to them along the way.

As they were combing the town for clues, Hershel soon realized just how much Luke had matured in the recent years. While he was still precocious and outspoken, he had a better control over his passionate tongue. Luke’s already-considerable native wit had expanded by his own study and diligence; combining that with Brenda and Clark’s nurturing, Hershel had a feeling it would not be long before Luke’s intelligence rivaled his own. It did not stop at his book-smarts; his acumen and skills of observation had sharpened, as well.

After a long day of following false leads and dealing with some uncooperative locals, they got a hotel room and called it a night. The next morning, however, brought fresh thoughts and ideas. Luke was the one to recognize what was actually going on, based off of a conversation they had had with a young mother they had spoken to earlier. As he hastily explained to Hershel, the people who had disappeared from the theatre were all new to the area, whether having recently moved or were just visiting.

Luke began pacing the sidewalk outside of the theatre as he explained his thought process to Hershel, “The disappearance victims are people who are not very well known – no family or friends around here – so their disappearances could have gone unnoticed except by the witnesses who had seen them vanish from what looked like out of thin air.” He paused, eyes darting back and forth as if he was reading a complicated book.

Luke suddenly spun around to face Hershel, declaring, “It’s the new theatre manager, that Ms. Roswell, who’s behind this, professor, it has to be!”

Hershel was struck by the conviction in Luke’s face and his voice, leaving no room for doubt in his mind.

“Remember how some people have said they don’t trust her?” Luke continued, resuming his pacing again. “Their intuitions were right. She was having these people kidnapped – and probably drugged, since they can’t remember anything that happened – in mystical disappearing acts in order to gain publicity for the theatre!”

Hershel stroked his own cheek in thought. “I do remember someone saying yesterday that the theatre had been in decline when she purchased it a few months ago. She has made it the talk of the town, but certainly not in a positive way.”

“Right!” Luke cried. He seemed excited that Hershel was in agreement with him. The two of them started walking in the direction of Mr. Hodge’s house across town.

“I believe you have cracked it! Very well done, my boy,” Hershel said, giving him an affirmative pat on the shoulder.

Luke laughed with delight, “Thanks, da-! Er…” He abruptly paused midsentence, looking profoundly embarrassed. “Um, ahaha… I mean, thanks, professor!” he quickly stumbled out.

The moment came and went so quickly that Hershel had to stop and process it. _Was he about to call me “dad”?_ he thought hurriedly, his mind racing. Luke’s embarrassment seemed slow to fade away; he couldn’t seem to look Hershel in the eyes.

“Luke.” Hershel gestured for them to stop walking. This was important and needed to be addressed right away. “Luke, it’s quite alright,” he said gently. “There’s no need to be embarrassed.”

“But… I just called you… ‘dad.’ It’s weird, isn’t it…?” Luke said, shuffling his feet.

Hershel smiled, conceding the point. “We’re both still getting used to our new, close-quartered living arrangements.” _Should I tell him about how I’m technically co-parenting him with Clark and Brenda?_ he thought. _No, not yet, it’s not the right time._ “I… I would never want to interfere with your relationship with your dad, Luke, but I think it’s perfectly fine if you see me as a sort of fatherly figure.”

This seemed to be what Luke needed to hear. A smile slowly crossed his face.

“Well… that’s good, because I have, for a while, actually!”

Hershel let out a chuckle of relief that he had made Luke feel better. Luke laughed, too, as Hershel pulled him in for a quick hug.

“Now that we have this straightened out,” Hershel said as they continued walking, “let’s go wrap up this case!”

With the final pieces of the mystery put together, they explained their findings to Mr. Hodges and to the local police force, the latter of whom were skeptical at first, but Mr. Hodges corroborated Hershel’s reputation.

“And Luke here was the one to figure out the majority of the details,” Hershel said, wanting to ensure Luke received proper credit despite being by far the youngest person present. Luke smiled, obviously feeling good about himself.

By this point, the theatre owner, Ms. Roswell, had been apprehended and she soon confessed and revealed her accomplices who had done the kidnapping and their method: using the theatrical rigging system used to enable actors to fly.

“We owe you both a huge debt of gratitude for what you’ve done for our town,” Mr. Hodges said, shaking Hershel’s and Luke’s hands in turn. “No wonder your parents are always bragging about you two whenever I see them, Hershel! A son and grandson to be proud of, for sure!”

“Oh, er…” Hershel stammered in surprise. He and Luke glanced at each other and bit back huge grins, both thinking about their conversation from earlier. Hershel was about to politely correct the man – explaining, not for the first time, that Luke was his apprentice – but Mr. Hodges was distracted by a reporter who wanted to talk to him.

“Well, we’d better head home, ‘dad’!” Luke said, stifling a laugh from their private joke as they left Mr. Hodges house.

“Indeed, ‘son’!” Hershel said, joining in the joke, as well.

But, on their way back to the hotel they had stayed at to fetch their things, Hershel mellowed a bit. He had told Luke the truth when he had said he was happy to be a fatherly figure to him. But the reality was settling in: Luke seemed to be feeling more comfortable with the idea, going so far as to call him “dad” a second time, even if it had been in jest. Hershel, Brenda, and Clark had agreed to not directly talk about their co-parenting setup to Luke, at least for the time being, and just let things happen naturally. _But maybe_ , Hershel thought, starting up the Laytonmobile engine, _maybe it’s time to change that…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Come say hello: detective-kat.tumblr.com


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a head’s up: this chapter is where the Teen rating comes in: for vague sexual content at the beginning.

Hershel had always been in the habit of taking showers at night. But last night, he had accidently fallen asleep reading in bed before he had had the chance to bathe. Fortunately, his first lecture of the day was not until 8:30 a.m. and it was only 7:00, so he still had plenty of time to get ready for the day before leaving for the university.

Stepping out into the hallway, Hershel found all the bedroom doors closed and the house completely silent; no one was awake yet. Or so he thought. Luke usually slept in to 9 when he could and Brenda and Clark both had that day off, so he figured they were sleeping in, as well. But before entering the bathroom, a particular sound from behind the Tritons’ bedroom door stopped him in his tracks. He was sure it was Clark’s voice, but it was something he had never heard from his friend: a moan. Soon after, he heard Brenda’s distinctive giggle. A soft sigh, a few sleepy mumbles, another moan, silence, before he heard Clark tenderly whisper Brenda’s name and the sound of their bodies shifting in bed.

Reality hit Hershel in the face like the solution to an unexpectedly simple puzzle: he was overhearing Brenda and Clark making love. Stifling a surprised gasp with his hand, Hershel rushed the rest of the way down the hall and into the bathroom, then closed the door the behind him. He looked at his face in the bathroom mirror; it was bright red with embarrassment. Couples make love. It’s normal. From what he knew of it, Brenda and Clark had a healthy relationship, and anyone could see that they were still very much in love after eighteen years of marriage. But overhearing them in bed, even if it had been purely accidently, felt like a huge invasion of privacy.

Hershel hurriedly undressed and got into the shower, hoping that the routine actions would distract himself from what he had just experienced. But he found he could not take his mind off of it. He had always had a strong memory; his subconscious mind, rather against his will, replayed the snippet of the Tritons’ intimate moment in the dull, repetitive sound of the water falling from the showerhead.

Then to his ultimate mortification, Hershel began to feel a bit aroused. _No, this is not happening,_ he thought as he washed his hair, scratching his scalp more roughly than necessary. _I’m not a voyeur; I am not about to pleasure myself to concept of my dear friends making love._ Bracing himself, he turned the water from mildly warm to as cold as he could stand; the shock of the sudden temperature change on his skin helped considerably. He recalled a 60-picarat puzzle and solved it mentally, all the while keeping his breathing slow and controlled. By the time he was done with his shower, all signs of his physical excitement were gone, but his emotional state was not much improved.

Hershel’s wristwatch was on the bathroom sink; checking it, he realized he had been in the bathroom much longer than usual and he would need to finish getting dressed and eat breakfast quickly if he didn’t want to be late for his lecture, as he had a twenty-minute commute. But as he toweled off and got dressed, he could not keep his thoughts from wandering. Back when they had been undergrads at Gressenheller, Hershel had met Brenda and Clark around the same time and the three of them had become fast friends. _They started dating soon after I met them, so I didn’t know either them as singles for very long._ _I’ve never felt romantic or sexual attraction towards either of them… Where on earth is this coming from, all these years later?_

As he finished combing his hair, Hershel released a long sigh. _It’s probably just our close proximity; living together with people can change dynamics in unexpected ways._ It was possible he was just overthinking the whole thing, but then a more painful idea crossed his mind. _Or… or maybe I’m just lonely._ That was harder to admit to himself, but he couldn’t rule out the possibility.

Heading out into the hallway, Hershel decided that for the next day or two, he should probably minimize his time with Clark and Brenda, just to reign himself in. He could not risk these unexpected, unwanted feelings going unchecked; they could interfere with his friendship with the Tritons, or, worse, their marriage.

Those plans of avoiding the Tritons quickly flew out the window, however.

“Hello, Hershel!” Brenda said cheerily as she walked out of Clark’s and her bedroom just as Hershel was walking by down the hall.

Hershel felt his face redden all over again; he hoped she would just assume it was from the steam of the shower.

“Oh, er… g-good morning, Brenda,” he said clumsily. _Alright,_ he told himself, _it’s just Brenda, not both of them, I can handle-_

“Hershel, we were just talking about you!” Hershel heard from behind Brenda. Clark joined them in the hall. He shared Brenda’s high-spiritedness; Hershel could only imagine why. _Wonderful,_ Hershel thought dismally.

Clark continued, “Today is Brenda’s and my day off, of course, so we were planning on having a lunch date.”

“But then we were saying how we’ve barely had any time together, just the three adults, lately, so we thought we should invite you!” Brenda said. “Café Magnolia, in West Wickham; you love their scones, right?”

Hershel blinked in surprise. He didn’t have any lectures or meetings through the lunch hour that day, so he had no real excuse to say no. Unless, of course, one could count “I accidently heard you two in bed this morning and it kind of aroused me for some strange reason and now I can barely look either of you in the eyes” as an excuse.

He had probably waited a second or two too long to respond, since Clark said, “It’s fine if you can’t make it today, Hershel; we can always raincheck.”

“N-no, it’s fine, I’d love to!” Hershel said hastily. _I may as well get passed this as soon as I can,_ he thought, _doing something normal with them could help…_ “I’ll meet you there, say, around 12:15?”

“Sounds good!” Brenda said.

“You’re off to the university, right?” Clark asked

Hershel nodded and quickly checked his watch; he had the perfect escape out of his one-sidedly awkward situation.

“Er, yes, I had better be going!” he said, dashing downstairs with hardly a backward glance. He was sure Brenda and Clark had noticed his abruptness, but at this point, there was no helping it.

 

* * *

 

Hershel’s stomach was all in knots as he drove to Café Magnolia to meet the Tritons. Parking his car on the street outside the restaurant, he thought, _this is just a normal lunch with your friends. Things won’t be awkward unless you make them awkward._ He had arrived right on time, at least; being late would have only made him feel even worse.

Having gotten there a bit early, Clark and Brenda were waiting for Hershel just inside the front door of the restaurant. Hershel greeted them as naturally as he could; at first his smile was forced, but by the time they had selected a table to sit at, the friendliness and warmth that always seemed to accompany the Tritons had helped ease his nerves a bit.

Since Hershel had never been the talkative sort (and certainly not when he was feeling as awkward as he was), he was happy to have the Clark and Brenda carry the conversation. They were by no means self-centered, however; after ordering their food, they wanted to catch up on what was going on in Hershel’s life, asking about how his first two lectures of the day had gone, wondering after the details of a dig he was taking his students on soon, what research he had found interesting recently, how his dinner with Flora and Kate the other night had gone, among other things. Hershel occasionally tried to reciprocate conversational questions just to be polite but found himself outnumbered by his two considerate friends.

As conversations among old friends often go, it was not long before Hershel, Brenda, and Clark got to reminiscing about the early years of their friendship while they had been students at Gressenheller. There had been the time when Hershel and Clark had been caught tampering with Schrader’s oscilloscope, the time Hershel and Brenda had competed against each other in the debate club, as well as the time Hershel had convinced Clark to give Brenda a “bouquet” of fossilized flowers they had found while doing fieldwork for a class.

“You asked me to be your girlfriend while we were covered in mud at the dig site!” Brenda said, snorting at the memory.

“It worked, didn’t it?” Clark chuckled in response.

Reminiscing over the fond memories did wonders for Hershel’s mood; he found himself feeling a bit more normal after the events of that morning that had caught him so off guard. He hadn’t completely forgotten, of course, but it provided his mind with a welcome distraction.

As they were finishing up their lunch, Brenda looked thoughtful. “Oh… all this talk about the old days reminded me… 8th March is next week.” She looked at Hershel with concern.

“Ah, yes…” Hershel said, mellowing a bit. 8th March was the anniversary of Claire’s death. It would mark twelve years since that nightmarish day.

Clark’s eyebrows furrowed. “Is… there anything we can do for you next week to be of help, Hershel?”

“Oh, thank you…” Hershel said, crossing his silverware over his plate, “but no… I’ll be fine, truly."

“Of course, but let us know, alright?” Brenda said. Hershel nodded appreciatively.

“Luke told us about what happened with the whole ‘Future London’ adventure,” Clark said, stroking his beard thoughtfully. “We almost couldn’t believe it. Seeing Claire again, after all this time… I can’t imagine what that must have been like for you, old chap.”

Hershel smiled softly. “It was extremely difficult to say goodbye again. I… I begged her not to go back to the moment of the time machine explosion, but she had no choice.” Meeting his friends’ eyes, he saw their faces were drawn with sympathy and concern. _God, this is no way to end a lighthearted lunch…_ Hershel thought. He had to say something to reassure them that he really was alright. “It’s been two years since the time-travel case. I still miss her, of course, but looking back… our short time together is even more precious. I do think that after all this time, I have finally let myself heal.”

Brenda and Clark’s faces filled with relief at his words.

“I miss her, too,” Brenda said, eyes twinkling with the beginnings of tears. “She was one of my best friends, and my maid of honor at our wedding, of course… But I’m _so_ proud of you, Hershel; you’ve come so far. After her, er, _first_ death, twelve years ago… I don’t know how you made it through.”

Hershel inclined his head. “Well, I had some really wonderful friends…”

The three of them shared quiet smiles at the memories of those dark days, when Clark and Brenda had slowly helped Hershel back onto his feet as he learned to cope with his grief. It had been a long road – some days easier than others, certainly – but Hershel felt stronger for it; he hoped Claire would be proud of him.

Their waitress must have sensed the solemnity of the moment at their table, because it was after nearly a minute of them sitting in contemplative silence before she came by to collect their empty plates and drop off their checks. The Tritons adamantly insisted on paying for Hershel’s meal.

“Not a word, Hershel!” Clark said when Hershel opened his mouth in protest. Hershel had not ordered much to eat, but he was still very appreciative of his friends’ kindness.

Standing up from their table, they headed to the front door of the café.

“Well, enjoy the rest of your day off, you two!” Hershel said as they walked to their cars.

“We will, thank you!” Brenda said. “I hope the rest of your lectures today go well.”

She and Clark waved goodbye as Hershel tipped his hat to the two of them before getting into his car. On his way back to the university, he felt a certain lightness; he was very glad he had decided to go out to lunch with the Tritons, after all. The events of that morning and the confusion and embarrassment they had caused him were still on his mind, of course, but after passing such a nice afternoon with Clark and Brenda, he could not help but feel that he would be back to normal soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! :D


	11. Chapter 11

Soon after the Tritons had returned to England, Luke had joined a local club for animal lovers that also provided science credits for the home-schooling curriculum the Tritons used; it offered educational interactions with wildlife and domesticated animals at zoos, aquariums, farms, vet offices, and shelters all across the country. Luke had joined the club for the fun of it, but the school credit was still a nice bonus. They met every other Thursday evening and Luke always looked forward to seeing his new friends and feeding his insatiable curiosity. Summer was approaching, and the club held an end-of-term party for the students and their families, showcasing what the club had done in the past year and handing out awards to the students for their achievements.

The Tritons and Hershel arrived at the home-schooling co-op center; entering the room where the party was being held, they saw about forty people already gathered: the other club members, their families, and the club’s leadership team. After filling their plastic plates with finger food from the buffet, the four of them milled around the room.

“Hey, Ethan! This is my family!” Luke told a boy about his age.

“Hi, nice to meet you!” Ethan said with a shy wave as he filled his cup from the punch bowl. The three adults said polite hello’s in return.

Hershel was a bit surprised by Luke including him in what he called his family, but he supposed that was simpler than referring to him as “these are my parents and my mentor who lives with us.” It was a pleasant surprise, however.

The four of them gradually made their way around the room with Luke leading the way, introducing his parents and Hershel to his friends and their families, as well as some of the club leaders and teachers that Clark, Brenda, and Hershel had not already met in passing. A young woman wearing a bright green, staff member t-shirt soon approached them.

“Hey, Luke!” she said, her voice chipper. “Introduce me to your folks!”

She looked towards Clark, Brenda, and Hershel, a hint of confusion on her face. _She probably thinks either Clark or I are an uncle of Luke’s, or perhaps a stepfather,_ Hershel thought.

“This is Miss Jessica,” Luke told his parents and Hershel. “She’s one of our zoology experts; she helps us learn how to handle and feed animals when we go on field trips.”

Jessica chuckled, looking a bit embarrassed. “Oh, I’m not quite an expert yet, Luke, I’m just an intern, fresh out of uni!”

“Well, internships are a wonderful way of getting hand-on experience and make connections in one’s field,” Hershel chimed in.

Her eyes lit up. “Yeah, and teaching it to the kids has been a great way of reinforcing my own knowledge! But anyway,” she continued, addressing all three of the adults, “Luke is so much fun to have around. We’re so glad he joined our club!”

“Thank you, he always has a blast!” Clark said.

A young man, also in a green t-shirt like Jessica’s, passed by, carrying a plate with a piece of cake on it.

“Markus, come meet Luke’s family!” Jessica said, lightly grabbing his arm and pulling him over.

Markus offered a big grin. “Yeah, I met them on orientation day! Nice to see you again, Mr. and Mrs. Triton.” Meeting Hershel’s eyes, he said, “Er, I don’t think I’ve met you, though, sir.”

There was a short beat of silence that was awkward only to the Tritons and Hershel; how would they describe Hershel’s relationship to the family? But Luke apparently did not notice it, because he quickly spoke up.

“This is Professor Hershel Layton, my… other dad!” he said.

Clark, Brenda, and Hershel exchanged quick glances of surprise. If he was puzzled by this, Markus didn’t show it; he hardly blinked before extending his hand for a warm handshake.

“Ah, nice! Good to meet you, Professor Layton!”

Hershel was reeling a bit – _Luke just introduced me as his “other dad,”_ he thought – but he quickly collected himself, shook Markus’ hand, and continued to make small talk with him and Jessica. Fortunately, everyone was soon invited to have a seat in front of the small stage at the end of the room, and the awards ceremony began.

As the various club leaders and teachers summarized the club’s activities and accomplishments of the past year, Hershel was able to process what had just happened further. Partially tuning out the current speaker on stage, he thought, _Luke hardly hesitated when he called me his “other dad.” It just sounded so natural, like he had said it a hundred times before. Did it just slip out, spur of the moment, or was it something he was planning on saying if someone asked who I am? Does… he actually think of me that way…?_

Clark, who was sitting next to him, noticed Hershel’s pensive expression.

During a round of applause, he leaned over and whispered, “You alright?”

Hershel gave a small smile. “We’ll talk later,” he mouthed. Clark nodded; he must have known exactly what Hershel was referring to.

As the awards were being handed out, Luke received awards for his volunteer work, his especial skillfulness during their horse caretaking section, and overall animal knowledge. All of the club leaders and members were aware of Luke’s animal-speech abilities, but Luke had refrained from using his gifts during most club activities and had earned the awards fairly. Brenda, Clark, and Hershel cheered enthusiastically as Luke accepted his commendations.

The award ceremony wrapped up, and the club leaders thanked the families for their attendance and bid them goodnight and safe, happy summer holiday; everyone made their way out to the parking lot. Luke was chattering a mile a minute, excited from the events of the evening. It pleased Hershel to see Luke so passionate; he could tell Luke was took much pride in his club.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear from you! :)
> 
> Find me on tumblr: detective-kat.tumblr.com


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the hiatus! My spring semester at university ended, I moved back home, and started up my summer job, but I was planning out this chapter all the while! I hope you enjoy! :)

The four of them rode home in the Tritons’ car. For the first five minutes of the twenty-minute car ride, Luke was chatting enthusiastically about everything that had happened at the animal club end-of-term party. But as the trip progressed, he gradually quieted down. Seated next to him in the backseat of the car, Hershel noticed this and thought Luke must have fallen asleep, but looking over, he saw Luke was staring out of the car window, as he often did when deep in thought. Hershel wondered what was on his mind but decided to not interrupt him to ask.

Once they arrived home, Luke held up his awards victoriously. “I’m gonna hang these on my cork board above my bed!” he announced.

“Why don’t you display them on the mantlepiece for a week or two?” Brenda suggested, locking the front door.

Clark said, putting his overcoat away in the coat closet. “Great idea! That way we can properly admire them!”

“Indeed; we are very proud of you, Luke,” Hershel said, patting Luke’s back on his way to the living room.

Propping up the certificates on top of the fireplace, Luke beamed with appreciation. “Thanks, guys!”

They stood around in the living room, talking about the day. Looking at the kitchen clock, Clark stifled a yawn (he had never been much a night owl) and Brenda began discussing their plans for the following day. Meanwhile, Luke went silent once again and his expression grew more serious and contemplative. Hershel thought he knew his young friend quite well, but he could not determine the reason for this change in his demeanor; he thought it must be connected to his pensiveness during the car ride.

After a few minutes, the adults began exchanging “good-nights,” but before they started heading upstairs, Luke spoke up.

“Could… I talk to you guys for a second?” he asked, hesitance in his voice. He looked towards the living room, indicating he would like for them to be seated.

“Of course, son,” Clark said, his sleepy expression replaced by alertness at Luke’s request. He and Brenda sat down on the loveseat, and Hershel joined Luke on the couch.

“Is something wrong?” Brenda asked, her eyebrows knit with concern.

“Well…” Luke fidgeted, apparently trying to find the right words. “I was thinking in the car on the way home about what happened at the party,” he drew a deep breath, “and I… just wanted to apologize, er, mostly to Dad, but to all three of you, too.”

“‘Apologize?’” Hershel echoed in confusion. “Whatever for, my boy?”

Luke swallowed. “I… I called you my other dad tonight, professor. I introduced you to Markus as ‘my other dad,’ without even thinking.” He looked to Clark straight in the eyes, sincere and earnest. “I guess I thought it would be simpler to just say it that way. Dad, the professor is really important to me, but he could _never_ replace you as my dad! I just…” Hunching over with his elbows on his knees, Luke buried his face in his hands, unable to continue.

Hershel, Clark, and Brenda looked at each other in alarm. This was _not_ how they had anticipated telling Luke about their co-parenting arrangement, but there was no helping it.

“Now or never,” Hershel whispered to Clark and Brenda. The two of them stood up from the loveseat and squeezed in on the other side of the couch, sandwiching Luke between them and Hershel.

“Luke… Luke, my boy…” Hershel said softly. When Luke raised his head from his lap a few moments later, his cheeks were streaked with tears, eyes filled with guilt at his perceived offence. Hershel’s heart nearly tore in two at the sight. “Luke, your parents and I have something to tell you, something we probably should have talked about sooner.” He looked over Luke’s head to the Tritons, who nodded in unison. “The main reason I moved into your house with you was to become a father figure to you in a more literal way. Your mum and dad asked me to co-parent you with them.”

“W-what…?” Luke stuttered.

“We wanted for me to become a secondary father to you naturally, over time; that’s why we never specifically talked about it with you. When you and I were on the case of the theatre disappearances a few weeks ago, you accidentally called me ‘dad.’” Luke nodded slowly. “I told you that it was completely fine for you to consider me a fatherly figure, correct?” Luke nodded again, this time with more understanding. “I _really_ meant what I said, my boy. You’ve no idea how happy it made me to hear you call me that.”

“And Luke,” Clark said; Luke swiveled his head to face his father, “when the professor told us what had happened while on the case, your mum and I were overjoyed, too. We were saying, ‘It’s finally happened! Luke considers Hershel a part of the family, like a second father!’ I wasn’t for a moment offended or hurt, neither then or tonight when you introduced the professor as your other dad.”

“In other words, love,” Brenda said, reaching out a hand to cup Luke’s face, “there’s absolutely nothing to apologize for, or feel bad about. Truly.”

Luke was again speechless, but this time, his face was full of realization, relief, and slowly-developing joy. It took him a few moments to process all of the information, connecting the pieces of the puzzle that had likely been on his mind for a while now.

“So,” Clark said, “while your apology is unnecessary, I believe _we_ owe you one. Your mum, Hershel, and I thought it would be more natural if the professor just became your third parent without directly discussing it with you, but in the end, it just brought unnecessary confusion. Can you forgive us for waiting so long to explain everything to you?”

Luke smiled softly, looking from Clark, to Brenda, then finally to Hershel. “Yes, I forgive you, all of you. I know you had good intensions.” He took in a deep breath, then let out a small giggle. “I just… never imagined that this could ever happen!” He turned to Hershel and gave him a hug. “You’re my dad now! I’m your son!” he said with a happy laugh.

Tears pricking in his eyes, Hershel hugged Luke back. Brenda and Clark completed the hug on the other side of Luke, creating a happy dogpile on the couch. After a few moments of contented silence, Hershel cleared his throat.

“Hi ‘Your Son,’ I’m Dad.”

Luke abruptly pulled back from the hug, a look of mock horror on his face. “…Your first official dad-joke,” he gasped.

“Oh, I’ve made a few dad-jokes to Flora, but I learned from the best!” Hershel said with a grin, then reached over and playfully shoved Clark’s arm.

“Come on, Hersh, you’ve always had the worst puns!” Brenda said, laughing.

Everyone else joined in with her contagious laugh for several moments, until they gradually quieted down, relishing the sense of alleviated tension and unspoken words finally being spoken, until only the ticking of the kitchen clock could be heard.

“If I put the kettle on, will anyone else have a cup?” Clark asked eventually.

“Dear, Hershel is present; do you really have to ask that?” Brenda said, tousling Hershel’s hair as they sat up and sorted themselves out from their extended group hug.

Clark smiled at Hershel expectantly.

“Well… she’s not wrong,” Hershel replied sheepishly. His friends knew him well.

“I’ll get out the teacups!” Luke said, jumping up from the couch.

Making tea was nearly as natural as breathing for the four of them, and the familiar ritual had a calming effect after all the excitement.

“Here you go, professor,” Luke said, handing Hershel his favorite teacup. “Oh, er… what should I call you now? I can’t call both you and my dad,” he pointed to Clark, “‘ _dad_ ,’ that would be too confusing.”

“What does Flora call you, Hershel? ‘Dad,’ right?” Brenda asked, tilting her head.

Hershel took a sip of his tea and nodded. “Yes, since she had always called her late father, ‘papa.’ Another option for you, Luke, could be ‘pa,’ which is what I call my father.”

“Hmm, I think I like ‘Pa,’” Luke said, stirring milk and sugar into his tea. “We can try it out for a while and see how we like it!” His eyes lit up in realization. “Oh! Does that make Flora my sister, then?!”

“Sure!” Hershel said with a chuckle.

“With Brenda acting as a maternal figure for her, it only makes sense!” Clark said, kissing Brenda’s cheek.

“Wonderful!” Brenda said.

“Although, we wouldn’t be _officially_ adopted siblings,” Luke said thoughtfully, “you adopted Flora after she left St. Mystere, but there’s probably no way to officially adopt me and become my third parent.”

Hershel looked to Brenda and Clark, considering Luke’s words. “Well, perhaps there _is_ a way, my boy.”

 

* * *

 

“Thank you for meeting with us today, Ms. Copeland,” Brenda said.

She, Clark and Hershel were shown into the social worker’s office. Ms. Copeland was a lean woman in her mid-fifties, her red, cropped hair only slightly streaked with grey. Her eyes showed years of experience in handling delicate, often tragic family situations; she had been surprised to hear the Tritons’ and Hershel’s story when they scheduled their appointment with her over the phone.

“So…” she said, sitting down in her desk chair on the other side of the desk, “let me make sure I have your situation straight. You two, Brenda and Clark,” she said, pointing two fingers to the two of them, “are married and have a son named Luke. And you, Hershel, want to adopt him and share custody of him with Brenda and Clark…?”

The Tritons and Hershel nodded in confirmation.

“Full or partial custody?”

“Full,” Clark said. “Hershel has been Brenda’s and my best friend since our university days, and Luke’s mentor and friend for the last five years. He moved into our house about five months ago and the four of us have been living together happily. We want for Hershel to be Luke’s third parent and for the three of us to have full, shared custody, if possible.”

Ms. Copeland made a few notes on her notepad in front of her, thinking over all the details.

“I see… alright. Now, you said Hershel is Luke’s mentor and friend. That’s it, right?” She looked back up at the three of them. “Was there ever any question about Luke’s paternity?” she asked frankly.

Hershel nearly choked; the Tritons seemed equally taken aback.

“O-of course not!” Brenda exclaimed, blushing deeply. “Clark is Luke’s biological father.”

Ms. Copeland added this information to her notes and took a few moments to review everything. She sighed deeply, before meeting the Tritons’ and Hershel’s eyes.

“I’ll be honest, I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said slowly, taking off her reading glasses. “It’s extremely rare for there to be a third parent in a family other than in cases with step-parents. If Clark and Brenda were getting a divorce and Brenda was going to marry Hershel, for example, it would be another story entirely. But as things stand, there’s not really anything I can do to grant Hershel shared legal guardianship over Luke.”

“Ah…” Hershel said, disappointment settling in his chest. “I… had a feeling you might say that.”

“It’s _lovely_ , what you want to do,” Ms. Copeland said, offering them a kind smile. “A child is fortunate to have two loving parents at home; Luke is truly blessed to have three. While I can’t make it legally official, I wish the best for your family.”

“That’s very kind of you,” Clark said. “Thank you again for taking the time to see us, Ms. Copeland.”

Hershel, Brenda, and Clark bid her goodbye and shook her hand before collecting their things and filing out of her office. They walked down the hall towards the lobby of the social services building where Luke waited, none of them saying a word. They had not allowed themselves to get their hopes up too high, but they could not help but feel a bit sad, nonetheless.

As they entered the lobby, Luke looked up from the book he was reading and quickly stood.

“Well?” he asked eagerly as the Clark, Brenda, Hershel approached. “What did she say?”

Brenda softly shook her head. “I’m sorry, love. The social worker said that, for our unique situation… it’s just not possible.”

Clark wrapped Luke in an embrace, which Brenda and Hershel joined in. The three adults wanted to comfort Luke in the face of the discouraging news; he had been so hopeful about the idea of Hershel’s name being added to his birth certificate. It wasn’t long, however, before Luke started to wriggle free of the hug. Pulling back, they saw that his face showed no indication that he was in particular need of comfort.

“We don’t need the government to recognize us as a family; we already are!” he said adamantly, looking from one face to the next. “Even though I didn’t know about your plans to co-parent me back then, I felt like we were a family the day the profess- I mean, Pa moved into the house. We’ll always been a family, in our hearts, no matter what!”

The sense of conviction and hopefulness in Luke, despite the less-than-ideal outcome, was a beacon of light for the three adults. They resumed the group hug centered around Luke, this time in optimistic agreement, rather than sorrowful consolation. Luke was a young teenager and still had some maturing to do in some areas, certainly, but Brenda, Clark, and Hershel could not have been prouder of his depth of character and insightfulness in that moment.

The lobby area was empty save for the receptionist, who looked on at the scene with tears in her eyes, even without knowing the whole context.

Eventually, the embrace came to an end, and the four members of the Triton-Layton family wiped their eyes, soft chuckles erupting here and there. Hershel gestured to the front door and they headed in that direction, still a bit overcome with emotion. Just shy of skipping, Luke led the way, running ahead a bit to hold the door for the others.

As they made their way across the lobby, Hershel realized Brenda and Clark were looking at him. When he met their eyes, they smiled at him more joyously than he had ever seen. Their ebullience was likely due to what had just happened with Luke, but Hershel sensed that there was more to it. The sight of his two friends reminded him of the evening he had helped them move into their new house. He had noticed a meaningful look shared between Clark and Brenda that, in hindsight, he now realized may have been when they had silently agreed to their plan of asking him to co-parent with them. Smiling back at them, Hershel could not help but wonder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Come say hello at detective-kat.tumblr.com


	13. Chapter 13

The weeks to follow were not all that different from how things had been before Hershel had become an officially-unofficial second father for Luke. Even so, it was more than Luke calling Hershel “pa”; there was a new sense of completion between the two of them; in addition to their friendship, they had had an unspoken familial bond for so long, and now that it had been acknowledged and reinforced as part of his biological family, it felt more real.

The main aspect of their home life that had changed, was that Hershel felt a shift in his relationship with Brenda and Clark, that he couldn’t quite define. The adults still saw each other at family meals and around the house, of course, but they did not spend as much quality time together. _Maybe I’m just imagining it_ , Hershel thought as he drove home from Gressenheller one day. They had busy lives, after all; Hershel and Brenda both had full-time jobs and Clark had decided to remain part-time as an adjunct professor at the university to spend more time with Luke on his home-schooling. Hershel just figured that he and Brenda and Clark would just have to be more intentional with their quality time.

So when Hershel suggested that the three of them go visit a new nearby tea shop that Sunday afternoon, the Tritons’ response surprised him.

“Oh, I think… we might have plans Sunday,” Brenda said, looking up from the book she was reading. “What were we talking about doing, Clark?” She was speaking uncharacteristically quickly.

“Right, yes,” Clark put down the crossword puzzle he was working on and rubbed his beard, “er, we were saying how we have been so busy lately, we will probably just stay home the whole day and just relax.”

Brenda snapped her fingers. “ _That’s_ right. Maybe another time, Hershel!” She resumed reading, and Clark got up and headed to the kitchen.

“Oh, of course…” Hershel said with a small nod.

His friends having always been honest people, they were not very good liars, and Hershel knew them all too well. Their excuse did not hold much water – Brenda had started out by saying they were making plans, only for Clark to say they were just going to stay home that day – but, as odd as the encounter was, Hershel did not want to press them. He hated to feel paranoid, but that, combined with a few other everyday interactions around the house, gave him the impression that Clark and Brenda were subtly avoiding him. Every time he thought about it, Hershel worried that they had, for some reason, changed their minds about their parenting situation, and did not know how to break it to him. He tried to not think about it too often.

That Sunday came, and the Triton-Layton family did indeed stay home, lazing about in their pajamas, mostly doing their own things before settling in for a family movie night. Quiet days at home were nice, but Hershel still thought it would have been nice to visit the tea shop with Clark and Brenda. _I should probably wait for them to bring it up_ , he thought. _We’ll get around to it eventually, I’m sure._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the shorter chapter; the next one is about 90% done and will be much more substantial than this one!


	14. Chapter 14

Later that week, Hershel was at his desk, grading final term papers for his Ancient Egypt course, when he heard a knock at the door.

Looking over his shoulder, he said, “Come in,” before pushing his desk chair back from his desk to see Luke open the door.

“Hey, pa!” he said, stepping into the room, before leaning on the door frame. Hershel was still getting used to hearing the title in reference to himself. “Whatcha working on?”

Hershel held up the term paper he was currently grading. “Oh, reading someone’s partially correct account of Egyptian mortuary practices. Mr. Fredrickson here isn’t going to get high marks, I’m afraid.”

“Ooh, not good!” Luke winced, though he was obviously a little amused. “Is he going to pass, do you think?”

“He did decently on his tests and quizzes, so he will, just barely. Most of the other papers have been better, though.” He put the essay back down on his desk, turned back to face Luke, and leaned back in his desk chair. “Anyhow, what can I do for you?”

Luke grinned. “I just wanted to ask if it’d be okay to have a sleepover with Richard tomorrow. Mum and Dad already said yes, but I have to check in with you, too, now!”

“Right! Well, we don’t have any plans tomorrow or the day after, so it’s fine by me. Is he staying over, or are you going to his house?”

“He invited me over! We’re going watch all three of the Indiana Jones movies, and play this new board game he got; it sounds really fun!”

Hershel had never been a fan of Indiana Jones – even though the man was also an archeology professor with tendency towards dangerous adventures – but he understood why Luke saw the appeal of the franchise, particularly as Luke had been on a few adventures of his own.

“Wonderful!” Hershel said. “I’m sure you two will have a blast.”

“Yep!” Luke said, beaming. “Well, I’ve leave you to your grading, pa. Have fun!” Of course, they both knew how “fun” grading was.

“I will certainly try!” Hershel called as Luke left the room.

 

* * *

 

The next day, Hershel dropped Luke off at Richard’s house on his way to his evening lecture for his Roman Architecture course. Luke gave Hershel a quick goodbye hug and the boys excitedly ran upstairs, talking a mile a minute. Richard’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Pearce, welcomed Hershel into the house; they made small talk in the atrium for as long as Hershel could without being late to his lecture.

Fridays were the only days that Hershel ever drank coffee, as he needed the extra energy to make it through his two morning lectures, one afternoon lecture, and then the Roman Architecture lecture at 6 pm; his students in the latter course were hardworking and paid attention, but evening lectures always felt the longest, for students and professors alike; being on Friday made a late start for their weekends, as well. Fortunately, it would be over soon, as it was only an 8-week long course that met once a week, but of course that also meant having to rush through the material much faster than if it was the traditional length, making it even more mentally taxing. Hershel’s drive home was quiet, though, as he had missed the worst of rush hour through the heart of London, and it gave him time to catch his breath from the busy day.

He arrived home at 8:15 pm; unlocking the front door, he heaved a sigh of relief and hung his overcoat and top hat on the coatrack in the hall. It took him a moment to realize a heavenly scent in the air: savory, with an array of herbs, and definitely some kind of seafood – was that salmon? Hershel _loved_ salmon. His mouth began to water, and his stomach rumbled in appreciation. Heading towards the source, he saw Brenda and Clark hurrying about the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on supper. On Friday nights, the Tritons usually ate earlier in the evening, as Hershel didn’t want them to have to wait until after his late lecture to have supper; tonight, however, they had apparently waited for him to get home before eating.

“Welcome home, Hershel!” Clark said cheerily when he saw Hershel. He was lighting three tall candles in the center of the table. “How was your Roman Arch. lecture?”

“Oh, fine…” Hershel said, a bit dazed at the display of food. Brenda and Clark were both good cooks, but the dish they had prepared, Hershel had only ever had at one of his favorite restaurants. Somehow, they had replicated it.

“Grilled salmon with ginger and a green onion relish!” Brenda announced as she placed the platter on the kitchen table. “Go ahead and wash up, the bread and side vegetables are nearly ready!”

A few minutes later, the three adults were seated around the kitchen table.

“My goodness, you two!” Hershel said in amazement as he served himself a healthy helping. “What a treat!”

“Well, yesterday marked six months since you moved in with us, so we wanted to do something special!”  Brenda said as she dug in.

Placing his napkin in his lap, Clark nodded. “And we adults haven’t done anything fun together in a while, and with Luke over at Richard’s tonight, we thought it was perfect timing.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Hershel said, feeling touched and a little more than relieved at their gesture, having missed spending time with them recently. He started eating; the salmon was just delicious as it looked and smelled, and the green onion relish was mouthwatering. “Thank you very much; this is all very kind of you.”

“It’s the least we could do, Hershel,” Brenda said, before taking a sip of water. “We can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done over the last six months, being such a wonderful co-parent.”

“Asking you to raise Luke with us was one of the best decisions we ever made.”

Hershel inclined his head a bit, humbled by their words. “It has been my pleasure.”

As they ate, they chatted about the past week, catching up with each other: recent happenings at the university and Brenda’s museum, discussing a new home-school curriculum for Luke, and making some plans with Flora and Kate. The last few days had not been particularly eventful, but the casual conversation made Hershel begin to feel better about the recent distance he had felt from Brenda and Clark.  Simply talking with his dear friends had always had a calming effect on him.

Towards the end of the meal, Hershel noticed the Tritons were beginning to look antsy, though he could not determine why. Clark got up to put some tea on and to fetch the tin of cookies, and their most recent topic of conversation gradually wrapped up.

“So,” Brenda said, slowly crossing her silverware on her plate, “about what we were saying earlier about the three of us not spending time much together recently.” She looked to Clark, as if cuing him.

Clark returned to the table with three teacups and the kettle of tea. “Right…” he said, a bit hesitantly. “Hershel, there’s actually a reason for that, just beyond normal busyness…”

Hershel cocked his head, looking between the two. Clark poured tea for Brenda and Hershel before pouring a cup for himself. He took a long drink of tea; Hershel thought that he may have been stalling. _But what for?_ he wondered.

“Brenda and I have been discussing something recently, quite a lot, and well… it’s made spending time with you feel awkward for us, so I’m afraid we avoided you a bit. We apologize for that, Hershel.”

“Apology accepted,” Hershel said with a small nod, though his stomach fluttered with nervousness at the topic. “I… had noticed that, though I tried to not read too much into it. I was worried that you two were distancing yourselves from because you had decided to discontinue our co-parenting arrangement.” He stuttered, checking himself; it wouldn’t do to make assumptions prematurely. “Er, you _haven’t_ , have you…?

“Of course not!” Clark and Brenda said, nearly in unison, looking equally stunned at the suggestion.

“That has never crossed our minds,” Brenda said, brows furrowed with concern.

“I’m so sorry we made you think that, ol’ chap.”

“I can’t tell you what a relief that is to hear.” Hershel could physically feel the weight of worry release from his chest. “So, what _have_ you two been discussing?”

“We want to extend… an invitation, of sorts, to you,” Brenda said, pausing briefly to chew her lip. She was smiling, but Hershel thought she looked nervous, too. “We know it wouldn’t be the most conventional arrangement, but we certainly aren’t the most conventional family.” She took Clark’s hand in both of hers. “We… well, we love you, Hershel; not only as our closest friend and co-parent, but recently, we’ve come to love you romantically, as well.”

Clark took a deep breath. “If there’s any chance you feel the same way, or are at all interested, we want to open our marriage to you.”

“It would be a polyamorous relationship, among the three of us,” Brenda added.

Of all the things in the world that the Tritons could have told him in that moment, _this_ was certainly not what Hershel could have ever anticipated. His mouth dropped open and eyebrows shot up of their own accord before settling once again a few seconds later, as he tried to comprehend what he had just heard. Staring into his half-full teacup, Hershel found that his mind was blank, and he could not speak; Clark and Brenda recognized this.

“Take all the time you need to think this over,” Brenda said. “We don’t need an answer tonight.”

“And Hershel,” Clark moved his chair in a bit closer to the table, “this is _just_ an idea. There’s absolutely no pressure on you. If this isn’t something you would want to explore, or if there is _any_ chance of this hurting our friendship with you, you just say the word and we can completely forget about this conversation.”

Although he was seated, Hershel’s head was spinning with an odd combination of shock, confusion, tentative excitement, and a profound sense of honor that his friends would even extend this kind of invitation to him. He was not even close to arriving at an answer for them; his first inclination was to go off by himself for a while for some quality introspection, but he figured it would probably be beneficial to process his thoughts aloud with the Tritons.

After what felt like an eternity of silence for all of those present, Hershel finally spoke, having gathered his thoughts into something somewhat cohesive.

“Do… you remember when we went to Café Magnolia for lunch a few months ago?” He knew the question would seem like a non sequitur, but he had to ask.

Clark and Brenda looked at each other in surprise.

“Well, yes, Hershel,” Brenda said, smiling patiently.

“I never dreamt of telling you this, but…” Hershel scrubbed a hand over his face, letting out a soft laugh. “That morning, I accidentally… overheard you two.”

“Overheard…?” Clark prompted.

“Making love.” The Tritons’ faces mirrored Hershel’s dumbstruck expression from a few moments ago, though there was a hint of amusement there, as well. Hershel continued, “I was mortified at just hearing you, and then even more so when I got into the shower and realized I had gotten a bit aroused at just the idea.”

Brenda suddenly snorted with laughter; Clark smirked at her, surprised at her reaction.

“S-sorry, sorry!” she said as quickly as she could, covering her mouth to stifle further giggles. “I’m not laughing _at_ you, Hershel!”

Hershel smiled, despite everything; he understood the irony of the situation, and besides, Brenda’s laugh was so cute…

“It’s fine, really,” he said, chuckling as he took a sip of his tea. “I was planning on avoiding you two for the day, just to let the one-sided awkwardness dissipate, but then after my shower, you two caught me in the hallway and invited me out to lunch. I thought I was going to _die_ of embarrassment.”

“I thought I noticed something was up with you that day!” Clark said, slapping his hand on the table in realization.

“Yes, I could hardly look either of you in the eye,” Hershel said, before his smile faded as he thought further on the memory. “I was… terrified of developing feelings for either, or both, of you; I would never want to interfere with your marriage…”

As they realized the weight of his words, Clark and Brenda’s expressions subdued, as well.

“But then,” Hershel continued, “talking with you two at lunch that day made things better. I still felt a bit awkward in the days to follow, but our time together reassured me that my accident that morning hadn’t ruined our friendship. I thought about confessing to you earlier, but I had no idea of how to go about that…”

“So, ever since then,” Clark said slowly, “you have suppressed any romantic or sexual feelings, or even the _possibility_ of such feelings…”

Brenda looked to him. “I guess that’s our answer then, love.”

“Well, yes and no.” Hershel reached a hand to rub the back of his neck. “I don’t normally develop romantic feelings for a person until I have a strong emotional connection with them: my best friend growing up, Randall, was the first person I ever had feelings for, and Claire and I didn’t start dating until we had known each other for nearly two years. The three of us met our first term at Gressenheller, and you two started dating soon after; in the short time we knew each other while we were all single, I didn’t feel attracted to either of you, since we had just met. And besides, I wouldn’t have ventured anything before I knew your orientations, so…”

“We’re actually both bisexual,” Brenda chimed in.

“Ah.” Hershel suddenly recalled how Brenda had offhandedly mentioned in that past that she had had a secondary school girlfriend, and how Clark had been quite the flirt as a young man, and not just with the ladies. “Well, Clark, I suppose you wouldn’t be interested in a polyamorous relationship with me if you weren’t attracted to men!”

“Yeah, that would have been a tad awkward!”

“Anyway…” Hershel returned his train of thought back to the matter at hand, “living with you two has changed our friendship – for the better, of course, though in ways I didn’t expect. Co-parenting Luke together, seeing you every day, living with you and doing simple little things around the house…” The corners of his lips danced with a grin; his stomach fluttered pleasantly. “Domesticity works in mysterious ways, it would seem.”

They looked curiously at him, a glimmer of hope in their eyes. Hershel felt the “yes” on his tongue – it was so close – but the astonishment of their proposal and the reality of the situation caught up with him first. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to corral his scattering thoughts; looking back at the Tritons a few moments later, their fixed gazes on him had not wavered at all.

“Brenda… Clark…” he said softly, “I… I _think_ I want this. I haven’t loved anyone since Claire; now that I have mourned her and healed… if I’m honest with myself, my feelings for you two aren’t strictly platonic anymore. It makes sense. But what if we try this and it doesn’t work out? Once we open that door, we might not be able to close it again…” Putting his elbow on the table, Hershel rested his forehead against his fist.

Clark reached across the table to lightly stroke Hershel’s forearm. “When you fall in love with a friend,” he said, “there’s always that risk. But more often than not, it’s worth it.”

“Of course…”

“And if we do go through with this, we can start out slowly: baby steps, Hershel,” Brenda said, her voice hardly above a whisper. “No need to rush. That way, if anything feels off, we can recognize it right away and either fix it or return things to the way they were.”

“Your comfort and wellbeing are our top priority,” Clark added. “This is something we want, but only if you want it, too.”

If he was not already overwhelmed, Hershel certainly was now. A few minutes ago, his best friends had confessed to having romantic feelings for him, that they _loved_ him. Hershel had heard those words, but now he felt them, too; he felt their love so strongly in that moment, in all their consideration of his feelings above their own, the care and sensitivity in their every word. It reminded him of how he felt the day they asked him to co-parent Luke with them: he could hardly believe the amount of trust they placed in him to invite him into their lives in this way.

Taken aback by this realization – that _this_ , like co-parenting Luke, was something he wanted, too – Hershel found himself speechless once again.

So, words failing him, Hershel stood and rounded the table to where the Tritons sat, their eyes following him as he moved; as he approached, they stood, as if to mirror him. In one quick movement, he caught them both in his arms and drew them close. At first, Clark and Brenda were slightly stiff with surprise, but Brenda soon relaxed into his embrace, and Hershel felt Clark release a sigh of relief next to her. Their arms adjusted slightly to wrap around Hershel, as well – Clark with one arm around Hershel’s neck and Brenda with another arm around his torso – completing the hug. They stood in silence for at least a full minute, none of them sure what to say, but also knowing that sometimes, they didn’t need to say anything.

Slowly, reluctantly, they let go of each other a bit. Brenda stepped back an inch or two to look Hershel in the eyes.

“So… can we take _this_ as a ‘yes’?”

“Oh, right, that sort of slipped my mind,” Hershel said, chuckling. He looked to both of them; they were standing so closely that he had to bounce his eyes back and forth between their faces. “Yes… yes, this is what I want. I think I have for a while now, but I… I didn’t dare to even consider it a possibility. But now…” he trailed off, again not able to find the words.

“Yeah,” Clark agreed to the unfinished statement; Brenda nodded, her eyes alight.

Looking down at their still-entangled arms, she said, “Er, now what?”

“Let’s move to the couch, maybe?” Hershel said, looking in that direction.

Refusing to let go of each other, the three of them walked like some uncoordinated octopus toward the living room, giggling like children all the way. Hershel sat down between the two Tritons.

“I think I would like to kiss you two,” Hershel said without thinking, but he meant it.

Clark gasped. “Are you sure? Already? We agreed we could take baby steps.”

“And I very much appreciate that. I probably won’t be mentally or emotionally ready for anything, er, _more_ for a few days, at the very least,” Hershel felt his face redden slightly at the thought, “but I do feel ready for a kiss, at least.”

“Alright,” Brenda said, grinning at the two men, “who’s going first, then?”

“Oh, er…” Hershel began, not knowing how to proceed.

Ever quick on his feet, Clark said, “Well, I believe that a _true gentleman_ always lets a lady go first.” Smirking, he raised his eyebrows pointedly.

Hershel felt a laugh bubble out at Clark’s use of his motto.  

“Well, I can’t argue with _that_ logic,” he said, turning to face Brenda.

It had been two years since Hershel had last kissed someone: when he had said his painful goodbye to Claire. The memory resurfaced in his mind, but he pushed it back, willing himself to live in the moment. Brenda sat before him, her delighted eyes watching him: eager, yet patient. She was not in a hurry, allowing Hershel to ready himself; even so, he knew that it would be all too easy to let himself overthink what he was about to do. He knew it was what he wanted, and he was not going to back down now.

Hershel’s eyes fluttered closed and simply leaned in. The kiss was soft; at first, he could hardly tell they were making contact at all. He felt her smile against his lips, and he could not help but match it. Brenda’s hands found Hershel’s, and, joined together, rested on their knees; they felt small against his palms, but strong. He had always liked her perfume, and it smelled even better up close like this. When they gradually parted, Hershel opened his eyes to see Brenda’s smile had only grown.

Opening her eyes, as well, she said, “That was lovely, Hershel. Thank you.”

Hershel turned to look at Clark. “Er, was that alright with you?” he asked, clearing his throat. Despite everything, it was still a bit of an odd moment and he felt the need to check in and keep communication open before moving on.

“Of course,” Clark said with a reassuring grin, first to Hershel, then to Brenda. “My turn next, I hope?” 

“Quite right!”

Brenda slipped her hands of Hershel’s to allow him to face Clark better.

“Enjoy!” she told Clark playfully.

This time, Hershel kept his eyes slightly open; he had never kissed a man before. Clark’s lips may not have been as soft, and the beard pressing against his cheeks was certainly something to get used to, but other than that, it was not all that different. Hershel hesitantly reached a hand up to cup Clark’s chin, running his fingers through the coarse facial hair; in response, Clark breathed his name. The two Tritons kissed very similarly – no surprise there – though Clark applied a bit more pressure while still keeping it tender. Pulling back to breathe, Clark rested his forehead against Hershel’s, and the two friends shared a bashful smile.

When their kiss came to a close, Hershel sat back into the couch, the Tritons still on either side of him. Staring at the unlit fireplace, his mind churned over everything that had happened that evening. He had just begun a new romantic relationship – a polyamorous one at that – and kissed his two best friends; as pleasant as it had been, he was feeling a bit overcome by everything. Hershel felt his eyelids begin to droop. Clark and Brenda snuggled in close to him, and the three of them propped their legs on the coffee table. The slow rising and falling of their chests soon synchronized.

“I could fall asleep right here,” he murmured after a while.

“Why not?” Brenda said. “We’re all cozy!”

Hershel looked to her, amused. “A sleepover? Aren’t we a bit old for that?”

“You did just say a minute ago that you wouldn’t be ready for anything further right now – I assume you meant, well, bedroom stuff. Sleeping here on the couch, all clothed and everything, could be a good in-between until that day comes when we’re ready to sleep in an actual bed together.”

“True…” Clark said thoughtfully. “But Hershel, do you need some time by yourself? This must be a lot for you to process, especially after your long day of lecturing today. You must be exhausted.”

“Thank you, Clark. I’m actually feeling pretty good, though. And sleeping here on the couch with you two _does_ sound appealing, what with Brenda said. Although,” he said, looking to the kitchen, “the dishes from supper-”

“-Can wait until tomorrow to be washed,” Brenda insisted, giving him a playfully stern look.

She leaned over to the nearby armchair to grab the fuzzy throw blanket, before draping it across their reclined bodies. No one suggested going to change into pajamas first, as no one was willing to leave the warmth of the couch, even for a minute. They snuggled back into their comfortable position, adjusting couch pillows as needed, though Clark was content to use Hershel’s shoulder as a pillow. They easily slipped back into the affectionate cocoon of warmth from earlier.

“Thank you,” he said, realizing he had repeated himself, but he truly was thankful. “For… everything.”

Hershel’s friends, and now lovers, simply kissed him in reply, before leaning across his torso to exchange a sleepy kiss from each other, as well. He drifted off to sleep hearing whispered “I love yous” from either side of him.

“I love you both, too,” he said quietly, his eyes slipping closed.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Baking](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13130121) by [AutisticWriter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutisticWriter/pseuds/AutisticWriter)




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